Bhim Army's Chandra Shekhar Aazad, 5 Indian-origin persons in TIME's list of 100 emerging leaders

Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad has featured in TIME magazine's annual list of 100 emerging leaders, which also features 5 Indian-origin persons, including UK Finance Minister Rishi Sunak.

The 2021 TIME100 Next list, an expansion of TIME magazine's flagship TIME100 franchise, highlights 100 emerging leaders who are shaping the future.

"Everyone on this list is poised to make history. And in fact, many already have," said Dan Macsai, editorial director of the TIME100.

Twitter's top lawyer Vijaya Gadde, non-profit Upsolve's founder Rohan Pavuluri, grocery delivery and pick up platform Instacart's founder and CEO Apoorva Mehta and non-profit Get Us PPE's executive director Shikha Gupta are the other Indian-origin persons on the list.

On Aazad, Time Magazine said, "The movement he leads, the Bhim Army, runs schools to help Dalits escape poverty through education. It also practices a distinct brand of assertiveness, sweeping into villages on loud motorbikes to protect victims of caste-based violence and organising provocative demonstrations against discrimination."

It called the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh next year as the 'first real test' for Aazad's political party. Aazad had launched Azad Samaj Party in March last year.

"Despite the Bhim Army's muscular stance, Aazad has also cultivated an aura of charismatic approachability through deft use of social media; even Aazad's luxuriant mustache-a style seen by some dominant castes as a status symbol-is a form of resistance," his profile said.

TIME magazine called Sunak an "unknown junior minister" in the British government more than a year ago. "But after the 40-year-old former hedge-fund partner was appointed to lead Britain's Treasury in February 2020, he quickly became the benevolent face of the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, approving large handouts for many citizens whose jobs were disrupted by the virus."

While his perceived generosity and youthful charm earned him a legion of fans, his policy was blamed when COVID-19 cases began to rise, his profile said.

"Critics also point out that because he has consistently advocated for early relaxation of lockdown rules, Sunak bears perhaps more responsibility than most for Britain's failures in responding to the virus, which has left more than 115,000 people dead-the fifth highest toll in the world," it added.

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TIME called Gadde one of Twitter's 'most powerful executives' and said she was the one who conveyed the micro-blogging site's CEO Jack Dorsey the news of Twitter suspending the account of the then US President Donald Trump following the Capitol Hill violence.

"...Gadde's influence is slowly turning the company into one that sees free speech not as sacrosanct-but as just one human right among many that need to be weighed against one another," TIME said.

While the youngest person on the Time100 Next list is 16-year-old entertainer Charli D'Amelio, who counts more than 100 million followers on TikTok, among the eldest is 51-year-old Raphael Warnock, a Democratic Senator from Georgia.

"Although recognising the leaders of tomorrow lends itself to a younger group, we intentionally have no age cap, an acknowledgment that ascents can begin at any age," TIME said.