Forbes India 30 Under 30: Rising stars walking the path of glory

For decades, even a century, magazines were a window to the worlds of fashion, celebrities, business and investigations. Women on covers were—and still are—rare, except of course in the first two categories mentioned. That was largely because they conformed to, what feminist author Naomi Wolf termed, the ‘beauty myth’: Unrealistic standards imposed on women, which only seek to undermine their self-esteem and potential.

General magazines have sporadically attempted to go beyond the stereotype. Time magazine, for instance, has had on the cover leaders of countries (Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi), actors and entertainers, without succumbing to the beauty myth (Meryl Streep of the early ’80s in a very non-showbiz avatar, and unconventional illustrations of Sophia Loren and singer Joan Baez). More recently, their Persons of the Year were the women who spoke out against sexual harassment (‘The Silence Breakers’, 2017).

Women on covers of business magazines are a rarity, save for the routine lists of the powerful and the super-rich. They’re doubtless welcome, at least until the time there are enough women leaders who can grab equal share of cover space through the year.

The equation is slowly but surely changing, and perhaps this edition of Forbes India’s 30 under 30 is a landmark of sorts. Four of the five who feature on the cover—a dazzling joint venture of Forbes India’s Chief Creative Director Kapil Kashyap and Group Photography Editor Mexy Xavier—are women. The list itself has nine women, and 15 if you include the special mentions. The absolute number would be more since multiple under-30 founders of an enterprise are considered a single winner. For instance, the three founders of Nori Narrative, Kamya Khurana, Nimisha Saraf and Sonaali Bhatla, get a special mention in the Design category.

Also worth noting is that a few of the winners are a part of a larger team of founders that includes women. Consider Dilip Ramesh, CTO and one of the four founders of Thinkerbell Labs, who gets a special mention in the education category. Sanskriti Dawle, another founder of the startup that’s building products for the visually impaired and who’s also CEO, turned 30 in mid-February, narrowly missing out (winners need to be under 30 till end-February).