Indian Business Leaders.
India's business landscape is being shaped by a new generation of leaders who are building beyond conventional playbooks, using technology, fresh ideas and a clear understanding of changing consumer and industry needs. From entrepreneurs transforming traditional sectors to professionals creating new categories, these individuals reflect the breadth of ambition driving India's next phase of growth. The Vision List: India's Most Influential Emerging Leaders brings together the people whose work, ideas and leadership are creating momentum across industries. Their stories are not defined by titles alone, but by the businesses they are building, the problems they are solving and the possibilities they are opening up for what comes next.
Ritesh Agarwal, Founder & Group CEO, PRISM
Ritesh Agarwal started building businesses after identifying a problem he encountered repeatedly while travelling across India: affordable accommodation often lacked consistency in quality and experience. At 19, he founded OYO with the ambition of bringing greater standardisation and technology to a fragmented hospitality market.
What followed was the rapid transformation of a young entrepreneur's idea into a global hospitality technology business. OYO expanded across international markets and eventually became part of PRISM, the broader platform through which Agarwal now operates across hospitality and related businesses.
His approach has centred on using technology to organise fragmented industries and create more efficient connections between businesses and consumers. The scale of OYO's evolution has also made Agarwal one of the most recognisable founders of India's technology generation.
His story reflects a broader shift in Indian entrepreneurship: identifying inefficiencies in traditional industries and using technology, rather than simply digitising an existing model, to rethink how those industries operate.
Madhu Lunawat, Founder, The Wealth Company | Co-Founder, Pantomath Group
For Madhu Lunawat, the business of building India begins far beyond the boardroom. Her journey has taken her across the country, meeting entrepreneurs, promoters, MSMEs and emerging businesses, understanding what makes them work and identifying those with the potential to grow. That ground level understanding has shaped a career spanning investment banking, private equity and asset management, and eventually led her to build institutions of her own.
As Founder of The Wealth Company and Co-Founder of the Pantomath Group, she established India's first woman founded mutual fund business and helped build a diversified financial institution across investment banking, private capital, asset management and advisory. She also played a pivotal role in building the Bharat Value Fund, which has grown to more than $1 billion in AUM since its first close in 2022, backing high potential Indian enterprises.
And perhaps the most telling part of her story is that even after building at scale, she continues to go where opportunity is.
Daljeet Sandu, Founder, Edvia.ai
Studying abroad remains a major ambition for Indian students, but navigating admissions can be as challenging as choosing the destination itself. With more than a decade in global higher education admissions, Daljeet Sandhu saw firsthand how students and families struggled with fragmented information, unclear requirements and an often complicated application process.
That experience led him to build Edvia.ai, an AI-powered platform that brings programme discovery, university comparisons, eligibility requirements and application guidance into one place.
Sandhu's approach is straightforward: technology should reduce uncertainty, not add to it. By combining his experience in global admissions with AI, he aims to give students clearer information before they make significant academic and financial commitments.
For Edvia.ai, the larger ambition extends beyond applications-to create a more student-first approach to international education, where better information and practical guidance can help families make more informed choices.
Deepinder Goyal, Founder & CEO, Zomato
Deepinder Goyal turned a simple observation about the difficulty of finding restaurant information into one of India's most recognisable consumer technology companies. Founded in 2008, Zomato began as a restaurant discovery platform before expanding into food delivery and a broader ecosystem built around changing consumer habits.
Goyal's defining strength has been his willingness to evolve the business beyond its original proposition. Zomato's expansion into food delivery, quick commerce, dining, and restaurant-focused services reflects an understanding that consumer technology businesses must continuously adapt to how people live and transact.
The company's evolution has also placed Goyal at the centre of India's new-age technology landscape. His approach combines an emphasis on product, technology, and consumer behaviour with a willingness to enter categories where the underlying opportunity extends beyond Zomato's original business.
From a restaurant directory to a diversified consumer technology ecosystem, Goyal's story is ultimately one of continuous reinvention.
Vishal Gupta, Managing Partner, Property Station
Vishal Gupta, Managing Partner at Property Station, brings over three decades of experience to real estate advisory, combining institutional discipline with deep market understanding. His approach is rooted in precision, transparency, and research, helping HNIs and global investors make informed property decisions with a long-term perspective.
Alongside Property Station, Gupta founded Care2Earn Services, extending his expertise into mortgage advisory and financial planning to help clients optimise cash flow and strengthen financial stability. He is also the co-founder of prOPIUM.ai, a real estate data intelligence platform focused on bringing greater transparency and data-driven decision-making to property transactions.
Gupta's experience across real estate, finance, governance, and risk gives him a multidimensional view of wealth creation. Today, he is helping shape the evolution of Property Station and Care2Earn while building prOPIUM.ai into a technology-led platform for a more intelligent and insight-driven Indian real estate ecosystem.
Dr. Himanshu Gandhi, Founder, Mother Sparsh
Dr. Himanshu Gandhi is the founder behind Mother Sparsh, a premium Indian baby and kid's care brand built around the idea of bringing Indian parenting wisdom into modern, problem-solving formats. Born in Jhajjar, Haryana, his academic journey spans engineering, MBA and PhD, giving him a multidisciplinary foundation that shaped his approach to business and leadership.
Before entrepreneurship, he served in a respected position within the Haryana government, an experience that strengthened his decision-making and long-term thinking. In a category long shaped by global players, he identified an opportunity to create baby products that felt more relevant to Indian families. In 2018, that led him to found Mother Sparsh with a consumer-first approach centred on understanding the parent's concern before developing the product.
Under his leadership, the brand has combined familiar Indian ingredients, modern product development, hospital sampling and continuous consumer feedback to build trust. Today, Mother Sparsh is an omnichannel brand operating at an ARR of over â¹200+ crore.
Nithin Kamath, Founder & CEO, Zerodha
Nithin Kamath is the Founder and CEO of Zerodha, the brokerage he bootstrapped in 2010 after years of experience as a trader. His own frustrations with the high costs and complexity of traditional broking became the foundation for building a simpler, more transparent way for Indians to participate in the markets.
Zerodha's flat-fee model and technology-led approach helped reshape India's retail investing landscape, while the company's decision to grow without external venture capital made its path particularly distinctive. Beyond Zerodha, Kamath has supported startups and financial innovation through Rainmatter and its broader ecosystem.
His story reflects a different model of entrepreneurship, one built around solving a problem he experienced firsthand, keeping the product simple, and building patiently without following conventional growth playbooks.
