Divya Sethu

Dr Bharat Vatwani and his wife, Dr Smitha, run the Shraddha Rehabilitation Foundation in Mumbai and Karjat, which aims to rescue and rehabilitate mentally ill patients off the roads, and reunite them with their families.

Earlier this week, after a conversation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, India announced it will be sending half a million doses of the Covishield vaccine to Canada. But this association, of helping the other out in the face of a devastating health crisis, dates back over 70 years.

Retd Army Captain V K Mehra and his wife, Cuckoo, started the Teasta Tea Shop, one of the capital’s oldest and most popular tea cafes, from their garage in Noida in 1995.

Dr Asima Mukhopadhyay is a clinical scientist and one of India's leading voices in women's cancer research. She is the co-developer of the PARP inhibitor Rucaparib, an anti-cancer drug, and has done groundbreaking research in the field of ovarian cancer.

Dr Rosie Llewellyn-Jones, a renowned British scholar, talks about an unnamed and unsung African woman who fought in Sikandra Bagh in Lucknow during the Revolt of 1857 and killed a number of British soldiers before being shot.

Ranji Smile, also called ‘America's First Celebrity Chef' and the ‘King of Curry Cooks', was an Indian immigrant from Karachi, who arrived in the US in 1899. He was known for his charm and incredible looks, but most of all, for changing the culinary landscape of America, and introducing the country to authentic Indian curries.

Tripura-born Chandra Shekhar Ghosh started Bandhan Konnagar in 2001 with the aim to move beyond awareness and empower the rural population, particularly women. Through various financial inclusion and healthcare programmes, Bandhan Bank has around 2 crore customers.

Dehradun’s Ekta Kapoor survived marital rape, three suicide attempts and severe depression. Today, she is an internationally certified fitness trainer, a national powerlifting champion, and the owner of Uttarakhand’s first premium personal fitness studio.

P K Rosy, Malayalam cinema's first woman actor and Indian cinema's first dalit actress, attracted the fury of many caste Hindus, who forced her to flee her state when she essayed the role of an upper-caste woman in Vigathakumaran, the first Malayalam feature film. She received recognition for her fearless work decades later, particularly in 2019, when the Women in Cinema Collective named their film society after her.

Delhi’s Karan Singh has used his six years of experience in training with international coaches in the US to scout for local talent from tribal areas of Jharkhand. Through the Indian Track Foundation, he is training these children to become middle and long-distance runners and win medals for India in the 2028 LA Olympics, and beyond.