Five Indian-origin persons on the 2024 TIME100 Next List

At least five persons of Indian origin figure in the 2024 TIME100 Next list recognizing “100 emerging leaders from around the world who are shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership.”

Among them are Indian Americans activist Tara Raghuveer and entrepreneur Adith Moorthy, Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia, British Indian actress Ambika Mod, and British Indian physician Mehreen Datoo.

The 2024 TIME100 Next issue has three worldwide covers, each highlighting a member of the list: singer-songwriter Sabrina Carpenter, NBA player Jaylen Brown and Springboard To Opportunities CEO Aisha Nyandoro.

Of the changemakers on the list, TIME Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs writes, “The TIME100 Next list was created to recognize that many of today’s most influential leaders are individuals who are not waiting long in life to make an impact. Nor are they eager to respect the status quo by following the traditional power structures and pathways that have determined what influence looked like in the past.“

On Oct 9, TIME will host the fourth-annual TIME100 Next event to celebrate the individuals spotlighted on the 2024 list in New York City, featuring a special musical performance by Sabrina Carpenter.

Persons of Indian origin on the list are:

Tara Raghuveer is the founding director of KC Tenants, an organization of poor and working class tenants in Kansas City, Missouri. She is also the Homes Guarantee Campaign Director at People’s Action, a national network of grassroots organizations committed to racial, economic, gender, and climate justice.

READ: 5 Indian origin persons on Time 100 Next 2023 list (September 19, 2023)

The Australian-born, Indian American immigrant came to the US with her family in 1995 and grew up in Kansas City. She “started with her neighbors in Kansas  City, and created a tenants union that’s become a leader in the fight for better regulations, protections, and rights for renters.

This year she expanded her reach, launching the Tenant Union Federation “to help others across the country build power, and forging a movement of working-class solidarity changing the way Americans think about rent, housing, and our basic rights.

Aadith Moorthy is the founder and CEO of Boomitra, a solution that removes emissions and boosts farmer profits by incentivising farmers’ land restoration through a verified carbon credit marketplace and carbon monitoring tech.

His expertise in advanced AI and satellite technology have earned him recognition as a top founder in AI by TechCrunch. In addition, Aadith is a Stanford Knight-Hennessy Scholar and holds graduate degrees from Stanford and two bachelor’s degrees from the California Institute of Technology.

READ: Indian American Ami Gan among ‘Time 100 Next’ (October 1, 2022)

The Earthshot Prize–­winning startup “has helped farmers remove 10 million metric tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. Moorthy hopes to double that in short order, and distribute $200 million by 2025 to marginalized farmers.

Moorthy knows that change often begins with an uphill battle, but says the pursuit of solutions that could move the climate needle on a ‘planetary scale’ keeps him motivated.

Ambika Mod was most recently seen as Emma Morley in the hugely popular Netflix series “One Day.” The 14-episode British series is adapted from David Nicholls’ 2009 bestselling novel of the same name.

It chronicles “the slow-burning, two-decade-spanning relationship” between Emma and Dexter Mayhew (Leo Woodall), according to Netflix. Variety describes Em, as Dexter calls her, as “a no-nonsense and bookish girl from the English county of Yorkshire.

“Ambika’s character, Emma, is at the heart of this sweeping love story, which had the distinction of making millions of people weep uncontrollably, internationally, when it dropped,” writes Indian American actress, comedian and producer Mindy Kaling.

Payal Kapadia made history earlier this year winning the Grand Prix at the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival for her film, “All We Imagine As Light,” about sisterhood in modern Mumbai. The award is considered the second-most prestigious prize of the festival after the Palme d’Or.

The Malayalam-Hindi film follows the story of Prabha (Kani Kusruti), a nurse, who receives an unexpected gift from her long estranged husband. This causes disruption in her life. Her younger roommate, Anu ((Divya Prabha), tries in vain to find a private spot in the big city to be alone with her boyfriend. One day, the two nurses go on a road trip to a beach town where the mystical forest becomes a space for their dreams to manifest.

Calling her a “trailblazer,” actor Ayushmann Khurrana describes Kapadia’s film as “a master class of emotions—deeply reflective, philosophical, and meditative in its approach. There is a powerful believability to how she portrays the human experience onscreen. Her authenticity and her lens on reality are part of what makes her work so rare.”

Khurrana says, “Her win will inspire other filmmakers and artists to follow in her footsteps and think big. India is a young country of more than 1.4 billion people. We have 1.4 billion stories to tell, and Payal has boldly, loudly, and brilliantly told everyone to pursue their dreams. It would be an honor to work with her, and to engage with her mind.”

Dr. Mehreen Datoo is an Associate Fellow of Green Templeton College and a Clinical Lecturer in Infectious Diseases, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford. Since she contracted malaria while conducting research in Uganda in her 20s, Datoo’s work has been central to the clinical development of the new malaria vaccine, R21/Matrix-M, from early-phase clinical trials to regulatory approval.

The vaccine is “now being administered to children in sub-Saharan Africa and will be game-­changing in the fight against malaria, which in 2022 killed 608,000 people, three-quarters of them children under age 5.

A clinical lecturer and specialty trainee doctor in infectious diseases and micro­biology at Oxford University, Datoo has worked tirelessly over the past seven years with experts across multiple continents to achieve this goal.