Meet Bengaluru’s 17-Year-Old Forbes 30 Under 30 Honouree Whose Diabetes Initiative Is Changing Lives

Seventeen-year-old Divaa Uthkarsha from Bengaluru has been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2025 list for social impact. She is the youngest honouree in the category, recognized for her non-profit, Project Surya.

Seventeen-year-old Divaa Uthkarsha from Bengaluru has earned a coveted spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2025 list in the Social Impact category, becoming the youngest honouree in the category this year. According to a report by The Hindu, the recognition comes for her work through Project Surya, a non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting children and families affected by Type 1 diabetes.

A Class 12 graduate from the National Academy for Learning in Bengaluru's Basaveshwar Nagar, Divaa plans to pursue industrial engineering in the United States. She told The Hindu, “The reason for getting named in Forbes 30 Under 30 was because of Project Surya, my non-profit organisation. I launched the project in 2021 when I was 13 years old after my younger brother Surya was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.”

She added, “Watching my family navigate the financial and emotional weight of his diagnosis led me to think about millions of low-income families in India who face the same reality without proper support.”

Before launching Project Surya, Divaa and her parents, Uthkarsha Lokesh and Pallavi Uthkarsha, conducted extensive research on Type 1 diabetes. Explaining the scale of the challenge, she said, “Type 1 diabetes is a lifelong condition requiring daily insulin injections to survive. In India, nearly 18% of a middle-income family’s earnings goes towards managing the disease, and 80% of those families have no access to government subsidies or health insurance.”

According to the report, Project Surya has reached more than 4.02 lakh individuals and directly supported 3,190 children living with Type 1 diabetes. The organisation has raised over Rs 20 lakh through grants, partnerships and community fundraising initiatives.

Reflecting on the impact of the initiative, Divaa said, “We have also trained more than 200 ASHA health workers to bring awareness about diabetes in thousands of villages reaching out to 49,500 villagers. Over 1,020 glucose screenings through free health camps were also conducted in these four years.”

The organisation has donated 4,500 insulin vials, 2,500 glucose monitoring strips and 1,000 insulin syringes to families in need. Its work has been presented at the United Nations headquarters in New York, the International Diabetes Federation and WHO forums.

Divaa's achievements have also earned her the prestigious Diana Award, recognition as a Top 10 finalist for the Chegg.org Global Student Prize, and the World Sustainability Award 2024, cementing her position as one of Asia’s most promising young changemakers.