New Delhi: The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026 began on Monday in Davos, Switzerland, where two Indian youth showcased their unique entrepreneurial
ideas to the world. The two young entrepreneurs are Ishan Pratap Singh and Drishti Medhi. While one is focused on solving civic dysfunctions in the country, the other is concerned with ensuring market access for blue-collar workers in India.
Ishan, the 22-year-old entrepreneur
Ishan Pratap Singh is a civic entrepreneur and the founder and chairman of Cooperation17. Singh, a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, has been selected among 40 startup founders to attend the global event.
The 22-year-old has built his company around the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, using civic engagement, research, and direct implementation. According to Singh, his work focuses on citizens, institutions, and businesses to solve civic dysfunction.
He builds cooperation through town halls, stakeholder dialogues, and public meetings with urban and rural local communities in and around Delhi. “My mission is simple. Civic dysfunction is caused by a trust deficit, information asymmetry, and a lacuna in harnessing the post-Covid power of people-to-people contact. Bottom-up, problem-solving civic initiatives are the only path to arrest the backsliding of global cooperation and reverse it,” he added.
Singh mentioned that at the global event, he will represent India’s narrative as a model of sustained development.
His vision is to create constructive partnerships, believing that parties with clashing objectives, frontier technology, and on-ground implementation of the SDGs in rural and urban communities can significantly elevate India’s condition.
Medhi – the voice of the vulnerable
Drishti Medhi is an entrepreneur focused on the upliftment of underrepresented indigenous communities in northeast India by providing them access to markets and trade. Her tech-focused approach aligns with her objective of positioning India as a growing innovation hub and giving a voice to grassroots communities in the northeast.
She aims to simplify international trade through technology. She has launched her own digital trade platform, QuickGhy, an AI recommendation model that helps traders make well-informed decisions about their commodities.
