18 Indians in WEF's Young Global Leaders list

Geneva, Mar 11 (UNI) Music composer A R Rahman, parliamentarian Sachin Pilot, sitarist Anoushka Shankar and businessman Jeh Wadia are among the 18 Indians in the list of Young Global Leaders for 2008 announced by the World Economic Forum (WEF) today.

This honour is bestowed each year by the WEF to recognise and acknowledge the top 200-300 young leaders from around the world for their professional accomplishments, commitment to society and potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world.

Other Indians in the list include SEBI Executive Director Sandeep Parekh, Bhatia Enterprises Chairman Sabeer Bhatia, DLF Managing Director Pia Singh, Wipro Infrastructure Engineering Ltd Managing Director Anurag Behar, Globals ITeS Pvt Ltd CEO Suhas Gopinath, PRS Legislative Research Director C V Madhukar and SKS Microfinance CEO Vikram Akula.

NDTV Senior Editor Barkha Dutt, Professor at IIM (B) Trilochan Sastry, Thermax Ltd Chairperson Meher Pudumjee, Moser Baer Executive Director Ratul Puri, Association for Democratic Reforms and Centre for Collective Development Founder and Director Trilochan Sastry, Adlabs Films Director Pooja Shetty and PetroTiger Founder and President Joseph Sigelman also figure in the list.

The Young Global Leaders for 2008 include 121 business leaders, as well as leaders from government, academia, the media and society at large from 65 countries.

The new class represents all regions, including East Asia (64), Europe (58), the Middle East and North Africa (12), North America (45), South Asia (24), sub-Saharan Africa (21) and Latin America (21).

The United States with 40 Honorees lead the list followed by China (31) and India.

Founder and Chairperson of Children for Tomorrow' Steffi Graf, King Jigme Wanngchuck of Bhutan, Film Producer and Human Rights Activist Munizae Jahangir, Colombian Singer Shakira Mebarak and CNN Anchor Anderson Cooper are in the current community of Young Global Leaders for 2008.

''The World Economic Forum is a true multistakeholder community of global decision-makers. We need the Young Global Leaders to be a voice for the future in the global thought process and as a catalyst for initiatives in the global public interest,'' said World Economic Forum Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab.

Drawn from a pool of almost 5,000 candidates, the Young Global Leaders 2008 were chosen by a selection committee of 31 eminent international media leaders.

''I feel greatly honoured for having been selected as one of the Young Global Leaders, and I am very confident that through this platform every YGL will be highly instrumental in empowering the youth and will be successful in bringing in significant changes,'' said Suhas Gopinath.

The current community of Young Global Leaders represents over 60 countries and includes Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Co-Founders of Google, USA; Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and Malvinder M. Singh, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Ranbaxy Laboratories, India.

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