17-year-old from Bengaluru listed in Forbes 30 under 30

Divaa Uthkarsha, a 17-year-old pupil from Bengaluru, has been named successful the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2025 database successful the Social Impact category, making her the youngest honoree successful the class this year. 

Ms. Divaa has conscionable finished people 12 at the National Academy for Learning successful Basaveshwar Nagar and plans to survey concern engineering successful U.S. soon. She said, “The crushed for getting named successful Forbes 30 Under 30 was due to the fact that of Project Surya, my non-profit organisation. I launched the task successful 2021 erstwhile I was 13 years aged aft my younger member Surya was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Watching my household navigate the fiscal and affectional value of his diagnosis led maine to deliberation astir millions of low-income families successful India who look the aforesaid world without due support.”

Along with her parents Uthkarsha Lokesh and Pallavi Uthkarsha, she conducted a research study astir Type 1 diabetes earlier launching Project Surya. “Type 1 diabetes is simply a lifelong information requiring regular insulin injections to survive. In India, astir 18% of a middle-income family’s net goes towards managing the disease, and 80% of those families person nary entree to authorities subsidies oregon wellness insurance. Over 35,860 radical died of Type 1 diabetes successful 2022 without ever receiving a diagnosis. This is wherever Project Surya played an important role,” she explained. 

Soon aft the launch, the youngster-led non-profit organisation has reached implicit 4,02,000 individuals, straight supported 3,190 children surviving with Type 1 diabetes and raised implicit ₹20 lakh done grants, organization partnerships and grassroots fundraising.

Reflecting upon the achievements of her organisation, Divaa said that truthful far, the non-profit has donated 4,500 insulin vials, 2,500 glucose monitoring strips, and 1,000 insulin syringes to families who could not spend accordant treatment. “We person besides trained much than 200 ASHA wellness workers to bring consciousness astir diabetes successful thousands of villages reaching retired to 49,500 villagers. Over 1,020 glucose screenings done escaped wellness camps were besides conducted successful these 4 years,” she added.

Ms. Divaa and her squad person presented their enactment astatine the United Nations Headquarters successful New York, the International Diabetes Federation, and WHO forums. At present, Project Surya has chapters crossed Bangalore, New Delhi, Varanasi, Mumbai, Ghaziabad, U.S., Canada, Morocco, UAE, and Nigeria, with implicit 120 volunteers and 35 committed precocious schoolhouse volunteers. 

Awards and recognitions

Ms. Divaa was recognised and honoured by the British Royal Family with the Diana Award 2023. She was a Top 10 Global Finalist for the Chegg.org Global Student Prize, selected from 11,000 applicants crossed 140 countries. She was besides 1 among the 5 radical successful the societal class (youth) to beryllium honoured with World Sustainability Award successful Amsterdam 2024.