One more addition to Ash's laurels

NEW DELHI: Close on the heels of her engagement to Bollywood heartthrob Abhishek Bachchan, former Miss World and Aishwarya Rai is among 25 Indians who have been named Young Global Leaders 2007 by the World Economic Forum.

Aishwarya features in the list, released by the Geneva-based WEF last evening, along side young MPs like Jyotiraditya Scindia, Omar Abdullah, Bhavana Pundlikrao Gawali, Naveen Jindal and Shivraj Singh, besides filmmaker Karan Johar and mediaperson Vikram Chandra.

The World Economic Forum yesterday released names of 250 young leaders who have been selected as Young Global Leaders 2007. The personalities have been chosen for the honour for their professional accomplishments, their commitment to society and their potential to contribute towards shaping the future of the world.

The list of 25 Indians who have been named Young Global Leaders 2007 by the World Economic Forum has 14 business leaders including Neeraj Bharadwaj of Apax Partners, Ajay Bijli of PVR Cinemas, Amit Burman of Dabur India Ltd, Amit Chandra, Managing Director and Head, Global Markets and Investment Banking, DSP Merrill Lynch, Priya Paul of Park Hotels and Jignesh Shah of Financial Technologies of India Ltd.

Also part of the list, are four persons from the field of politics including Jyotiraditya Scindia, Omar Abdullah, Bhavana Pundlikrao Gawali, Naveen Jindal and Shivraj Singh.

Featuring in the list from 'arts and culture' category is filmmaker Karan Johar, while in the 'social' category, two people have been chosen including Arvind Kejriwal, founder, Parivartan and Ramesh Ramanathan, founder, Janaagraha.

Two Indians also feature in the list from the 'opinion' category including Vikram Chandra, Managing Editor, NDTV and Raju Narisetti, Chief Managing Editor, HT Media Ltd.
 
Drawn from a pool of over 4,000 candidates, the Young Global Leaders nominated in 2007 have been chosen by a selection committee of 34 eminent international media leaders, including Marjorie Scardino, Chief Executive, Pearson, United Kingdom; Arthur Sulzberger, Chairman and Publisher, The New York Times, US; Tom Glocer, Chief Executive Officer, Reuters, United Kingdom; and Hisashi Hieda, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Fuji Television Network, Japan. The committee is chaired by Queen Rania of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.