Rohini Nilekani began her career as a journalist and even wrote a medical thriller before turning her focus to water and education causes. When she stepped into philanthropy, she didn’t have all the answers. She describes it as a “steep learning curve,” especially navigating India’s water sector from scratch. That’s likely why she openly questions why philanthropy plays it safe, when the problems themselves are anything but.
 

Look to her for: Insights on driving change at scale and learning how to stick with long-term challenges without burning out.

Known on stage by her fiery alias “Krantinaari” (Revolutionary Woman), Ashwini proves that changemakers can wear sneakers and spit rhymes. Her story began on a street corner one Sunday while eating dosa with a friend at a Mumbai stall. She blurted out her long-held dream of an all-women hip-hop collective. 
That very evening they called every female rapper, breaker, and graffiti artist they knew. To their surprise, eight women showed up, and Wild Wild Women, India’s first all-female hip-hop crew, was born. It doesn’t get more down-to-earth than “let’s start a revolution after snacks!”

Look to her for: Changemaking outside institutions that grows from lived experience and community.

A technologist who started coding on a borrowed computer, Kailash doesn’t chase titles, money, or five-year plans. Instead, he thinks deeply about uncertainty, absurdity, and why we keep building anyway.

As Zerodha grew, he found himself in a position of influence and capital. But instead of following traditional corporate philanthropy, his approach focused on learning, experimenting, and building with purpose.

​

Look to him for: Building with conviction, and letting the process become meaningful change.

A psychiatrist who has spent years listening before intervening, Deepak Dhananjaya doesn’t see mental health as a personal flaw - but as something shaped by families, systems, livelihoods, and the worlds we grow up in. Through his work with the Prabhava Institute of Inclusive Mental Health, he has focused on what most conversations skip over: access, dignity, community care, and what mental health looks like outside clinics and cities. Instead of quick fixes or diagnoses in isolation, his approach centres on building care systems that work for real lives - especially for people who are often left out of the mental health conversation altogether. Deepak’s work reminds us that healing isn’t just about individuals getting better. It’s about environments becoming safer, kinder, and more supportive.
 

Look to him for: Rethinking mental health as a shared responsibility - and building systems of care that are inclusive, grounded, and deeply human.