5 Indians on WEF's 2017 young global leaders list

It selects 100 young leaders, under 40, who are tackling world's challenges with innovative ideas

Five Indians, including Paytm founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Shruti Shibulal, promoter and director of The Tamara Hospitality, have made it to the World Economic Forum's 100 Young Global Leaders list.

The other individuals who represented India on the list include Ambarish Mitra, founder and CEO of Blippar, a mobile phone app business valued at $1.5 billion; Hindol Sengupta, editor-at-large of Fortune India, and Rwitwika Bhattacharya-Agarwal, founder and CEO of Swaniti Initiative.

There were nine global leaders from South Asia, of which five are from India. Besides, there are some persons of Indian origin in the US and Europe were also named on the list.

Each year, the World Economic Forum (WEF) selects 100 young leaders, under the age of 40, who are tackling the world's most complex challenges with innovative approaches.

In this year's list of 100 Young Global Leaders, half the intake comes from emerging economies, reflecting a trend towards greater diversity in global leadership.

"Selected into a five-year programme, this year's class of 100 Young Global Leaders is split evenly between business and not-for-profit sectors — building a global community of peers who can capitalise on diverse talents, experiences, and networks to bridge divides that exist in society and achieve more together than they could separately," WEF noted.

The Class of 2017 features two of the world's top scientists on genome editing: Luhan Yang, chief scientist at eGenesis Biosciences, and Feng Zhang, a core member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

From the public sector, the list features Aja Brown the youngest mayor to be elected in Compton, California.

Among those representing the private sector is Katie Hill, an innovator who leads Apple's ambitious new clean energy programme, converting the company's manufacturing worldwide to renewable energy.