The eighth edition of Young Leaders Connect saw hundreds participate in the event aiming to hear and learn from some of the brightest minds in the nation, especially from the Northeast. Fittingly, the conclave ended with recognising and rewarding some of the brightest minds who have not only made the Northeast proud but have also contributed immensely to capacity-building and employment generation opportunities across the region.
The eligibility criteria specified that the winners must be domiciled in Northeast India and between 18-45 years.
Here are the winners:
Healthcare
Dr Parveez Ubed: Founder & MD, ERC Eye Care
Dr. Parveez Ubed is an ophthalmologist from Assam with a mission to provide inclusive, affordable, and accessible eye care to all, primarily to the underserved community. Dr. Parveez Ubed is the Founder and Managing Director of ERC
Eye Care, a sustainable enterprise dedicated to providing quality, affordable and accessible eye care solutions for the rural population in Northeast India. Dr. Ubed graduated from Guwahati Medical College, one of the oldest and most prestigious colleges in the North East Indian state of Assam, where he excelled at his specialization in ophthalmology.
Entrepreneurship
Roshan Farhan: Founder & CEO, GoBillion
Roshan Farhan is the Founder and CEO at Gobillion – a YCombinator-backed, pioneering B2C social e-commerce platform for the next 400 million customers spread across tier-2+ cities in India. Gobillion enables customers to buy together socially in groups and unlock great deals across products in groceries and other daily usage categories. In his leadership capacity, Roshan is responsible for overseeing
the overall organizational growth and business strategy which includes fundraising, investor relations, finance, operations, sales and marketing, supply chain, and customer growth.
Administration
Pooja Elangbam: IAS
Pooja Elangbam is an IAS Officer from Manipur who cleared UPSC CSE 2017 securing All India Rank 81. She shares her journey to IAS, her inspirations, strategies, success mantra, reading habits and her latest initiative Imphal Book Club that focusses on building and improving book- reading habits of the youths today.
Media & entertainment
Andrea Kevichusa: Indian actor and Model
Andrea Kevichusa is an Indian model and actor from Nagaland. She made her acting debut with Anek in 2022 alongside Ayushmann Khurrana. Kevichüsa has worked with fashion designers like Sabyasachi Mukherjee and several other notable
brands. She has also worked for Katrina Kaif’s cosmetic line, Kay Beauty, and has been featured in editorials of magazines such as Vogue India, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Femina, Grazia, and on the cover of Filmfare. In 2022, Kevichüsa made her film debut with Anek. The film is written and directed by Anubhav Sinha. Kevichüsa plays the role
of a North East Indian boxer.
Sports
Jeremy Lalrinnunga: Indian weightlifter
Jeremy Lalrinnunga is an Indian weightlifter from Aizawl, Mizoram. He represented India in the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires. He won the gold medal in the Boys’ 62kg category weightlifting with a lift of 274kg (124kg in snatch and 150kg in clean and jerk).It was India’s first gold medal in the Youth Olympics Games. Jeremy won silver medal in Asian weightlifting championship.At the 2019 World Weightlifting Championships, Lalrinnunga finished at 21st rank at the Men’s 67 kg event. He won gold in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, in the 67 kg category, with a game record lift of 140kg in snatch and 160kg in clean and jerk.
Education
Sidharth Yonzone: Principal of Eklavya Model Residential School, Gangyap
Siddharth Yonzone is the principal of Eklavya Model Residential School, Gangyap. Eklavya Model Residential Schools were started in 1997-98 to impart quality education to Scheduled Tribe children in remote areas in order to enable them to avail of
opportunities in high and professional education courses and get employment in various sectors. Sidharth Yonzone has been in the teaching profession for 20
years now. He was conferred with National Teachers Award 2022.
Social Innovation
Rida Gatphoh: Co-founder, Dakti Craft
Rida is the co-founder of DakTi based in Meghalaya. Dakti presents a unique range of hand crafted products made from natural materials; these products are handmade impressions of our artistic expressions. They work towards design minimalism,
emphasis on recycling, avoidance of waste in production and packaging, creating a geographical identification for the products. Dakti was awarded the Wipro- Nature Forever Society Sparrow Awards in 2016, The Telegraph North East Excellence
Award 2017 and the National Entrepreneurship Award 2019.
Tourism
Jimu Mele: Advisor, Emudu Trekkers
Jimu Mele is an advisor to NGO Emudu Trekkers Organizing treks in Dibang Valley Arunachal Pradesh. He has been working tirelessly in bringing tourism to Dibang Valley in the limelight. His aim is to Make Dibang Valley the Trekking hub of North East. We want to make sure every household earns from tourism. Jimu wants to do this by exploring High altitude Lakes and by setting the right spirit of trekking in unexplored Arunachal Pradesh
Also read | YLC 8: Manipur, Arunachal CMs launch Project NEW to help NE entrepreneurs
Trending Stories
- Guwahati cyclists participate in cycle ride, plant trees on World Environment Day
- Manipur: 790 looted ammunition, arms recovered by security forces
- Abhishek Banerjee’s wife Rujira stopped from boarding Dubai flight
- India strongly raising issue of climate justice with developed countries: PM Modi
- Arunachal: Govt expedites implementation of 50 Golden Jubilee Model Schools
- Manipur: Groups agree to lift NH-2 blockade, restore supply of basics
