THE POWER OF India’s young population to fuel the country’s economic growth — the demographic dividend — is no longer something to feel good about for the future: Young India is driving much of the country’s growth energy already. Nowhere is this in greater evidence than in India’s startup ecosystem, where young Indians are coming up with brilliant and innovative ideas and setting up ventures that have the potential to scale up and make significant changes in the sectors where they operate. As of March 31, 2026, India has more than 2.23 lakh startups registered under the Startup India initiative of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, creating over 23 lakh direct jobs. Yes, there are challenges relating to the young population and its aspirations, but a large section is also moving to becoming job creators rather than job seekers, because of the startups they are building.

And not just startups. There are several young leaders in many of India’s storied business groups and enterprises who are driving change by taking their existing businesses forward into new, emerging areas. These next-gen leaders are also visionaries like their counterparts in startups and are successfully steering large business houses into sunrise sectors to create maximum value.

On the governance and policy side too, young energy is driving major change. Our cover story is about one such changemaker, Nara Lokesh, the 43-year-old minister for IT, electronics and education in the government of Andhra Pradesh. Lokesh, the son of Andhra chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu who is himself acknowledged as a visionary leader, is busy putting together the blueprint for the state’s next growth phase, based on technology, bold reforms and a laser-sharp focus on attracting investments. But pulling in investors, for Lokesh, is much more than making grand announcements of projects. “I am not in the business of signing MoUs. I want projects to be grounded. That is what India wants,” he tells Ashutosh Kumar and V. Keshavdev as he elaborates on his plans. The strategic vision Lokesh is giving shape to, as part of the government’s policy, is of Swarna Andhra — to transform the state into a $2.4 trillion-plus (over ₹308 lakh crore) economy by 2047, with a per capita income of over $42,000 and exports exceeding $450 billion. And a key element of this plan is to build a world-class greenfield city, Amaravati, which is well-planned with world-class infrastructure, the kind India has not seen yet. As a young policy catalyst, Lokesh knows only too well that India’s — and Andhra Pradesh’s — time is now, and he must grab the opportunity with both hands.

In keeping with the theme of the youth, we also bring you our annual Fortune India 40 Under 40 list, the much-awaited compendium of India’s brightest young business minds. The list comprises some of the sharpest first-generation entrepreneurs and also those bright young minds who are powering existing business enterprises into the future. In a country as diverse and vast as India, it is not an easy task to arrive at a list of this kind, but Fortune India was helped by a stellar jury in selecting the winners. This year’s jury was chaired by Dr Sanjiv Goenka, chairman, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, and had Cyril Shroff of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Uday Shankar of JioStar, Saugata Gupta of Marico, Anjali Bansal of Avaana Capital, and Mohit Bhatnagar of Peak XV Partners as members. The names they picked are those powering India to the ultimate dream: a Viksit Bharat by 2047.