Global Indianstory Global Indian ExclusiveBug bounty hunter Aditi Singh: How ethical hacking earned her ₹70 lakh, & counting

Bug bounty hunter Aditi Singh: How ethical hacking earned her ₹70 lakh, & counting

Written by: Charu Thakur

(January 18, 2022) “One skill you want to master in this day and age, if you want to have an extraordinary life, is the ability to learn rapidly.”

Business coach Tony Robbins inadvertently encapsulated the life of Aditi Singh, a self-taught bug bounty hunter with this quote. What started in 2017 as mere curiosity about cyber security has now led to such a high level of expertise that the Delhi-based ethical hacker received $30,000 (₹22 lakh) in 2021 to detect a flaw in Microsoft’s cloud system. She also earned ₹70 lakh in 2021, just saying. “With no prior knowledge of computer and coding programmes or languages, I was a mere novice exploring possibilities. After spending weeks reading and researching, I grew fascinated and knew I wanted to become a bug bounty hunter,” Aditi shares with Global Indian.

In her zeal to hone her skills, the college dropout devoured YouTube tutorials and content on blogs to gain every ounce of information that she could lay her hands on. “My learnings have made me realise that you don’t need a degree if you are continuously working on improving your skills – these skills that have made me a bug bounty hunter earning lakhs,” smiles Aditi, who has found bugs in over 60 companies including Paytm, Ethereum, HP, and Mozilla.

Bug Bounty Hunter | Aditi Singh

The bounty is the bug, for Aditi!

The 21-year-old girl was in the news in 2021 for receiving a handsome bounty from Microsoft for spotting a bug in the cloud system. “I spotted an RCE (remote code execution) bug and informed the tech giant which took two months to check at their end if anybody had downloaded its insecure version. Only after confirming, they realised the security fault in their system,” says the bug hunter, who reveals that the developers should first download a node package manager instead of writing the code as this often leads to an RCE bug.

Born and raised in Delhi by an Anganwadi teacher mother and a clerk father, Singh comes from a humble background. However, it was her love for video games that kept her hooked on to the computer since childhood. “I remember spending so much time on the computer playing video games. Beyond that, I had no interest in it initially,” she says. However, things took a turn for this Notre Dame school student after she moved to Kota to prepare for her medical entrance exams. “I joined the Allen Institute in Kota to prepare. Though I was not inclined to become a doctor, I still wanted to give it a shot. However, destiny had a different plan as I soon started getting interested in computers and ethical hacking,” reveals Aditi.

Coming across an article on the internet, her curiosity was piqued. “The next few months, I lapped up every ounce of information I could find. If the dynamics of it intrigued me, I was equally excited about the kind of money that one makes,” adds the bug bounty hunter.

Her first real triumph came after she hacked into her neighbour’s wifi in Kota. “Months of reading and watching YouTube videos helped me do it, and it piqued my interest in bug bounty hunting,” says the self-taught ethical hacker.

Finding the path she was to charter, Aditi gave up on her parents’ dream of making her a doctor, instead enrolled in a bachelor’s degree in computer application at Indira Gandhi National Open University. Interestingly, she ethically “hacked” her way into her maiden job at MapMyIndia during her first year of graduation. “While going through several platforms, I found some vulnerabilities on MapMyIndia. I reached out to them and reported a bug,” says Aditi. They offered her a job as cybersecurity analyst even without her degree! She worked with them for around three years – with an eagle eye on cloud security, network security, and android security.

Needless today, she dropped out of college, and started working full-time. “I realised that I didn’t need a degree to get a job. I am a living example as I learnt coding and programming languages like Javascript from YouTube and Google,” says the cybersecurity expert.

The cyber world to cipher

While Aditi kept her day job, she continued learning about ethical hacking and bug bounty hunting. Who are bug bounty hunters? “They are mostly certified cybersecurity professionals who crawl the web, and scan systems for bugs or security flaws through which hackers can sneak in, and we alert companies. They are rewarded with cash if they are successful in finding a security hole,” reveals Aditi.

Spotting such bugs isn’t a cakewalk and ethical hackers need to be on top of their game to be eligible for payouts, she avers. “While many companies host bounty programmes asking bug hunters to report any flaws, some aren’t registered with bounty hunting platforms, and one has to individually look them up. But it’s important to inform them before you look for flaws. That’s the thumb rule I follow,” says the veritable bug spotter.

Bounty bug hunting continues

It was in 2020 that Aditi earned her first big bounty of $1,100 after she reported an OTP bypass bug in TikTok’s forgot password section. “It was a few months before TikTok was banned in India. I could change anybody’s password on the application, and this was a flaw that they couldn’t overlook. I earned around ₹82,000 for it,” smiles Aditi.

Her next big bounty hunting came in March 2021 when she found a bug in Facebook’s cloud system wherein, she could hack into employees or developers’ systems. She earned a whopping $7,500 ( ₹5.5 lakh) for the bug. “I later found another bug and got $3,000 for it,” she adds.

But it was with Microsoft that she hit the jackpot after she detected an RCE in the Azure cloud platform in 2021, and became an internet sensation for earning $30,000 (₹22 lakh) for reporting the security issue. “The news went viral. It was like a validation that all these years of hard work was finally paying off,” says Aditi, who quit her job in 2021 to become a full-time bug bounty hunter.

The girl, who has found bugs in 60 companies so far, has also received letters of appreciation from Harvard University, Columbia University, and the University of California among others. “I found bugs in the websites of these universities. Since they don’t pay you like other companies, they send you a letter of appreciation,” adds Aditi.

On what she does with the bounty, the youngster smiles, “I go on trips to the mountains. Apart from this, I buy gadgets or subscribe to hacking tools,” adds Aditi, who uses the money to enhance her skills and talent apart from giving a lump sum to her parents. “I give it to them to invest. They are proud that I am doing great,” adds Singh.

A voracious reader, Aditi loves to curl up with a book when not hunting bugs. “I also love to play video games and travel,” says Singh, who has a younger brother and an older sister. “Our parents have been our biggest support system. They have always encouraged and supported us in our endeavours,” says the girl, who has her eyes on crypto companies next. “Crypto is the future and now I am learning tools that could help me get to the next level. It’s all about evolution and upgrading,” she says.

As an ethical hacker, however, she offers a word of caution, “Learn and then earn. Gain knowledge about ethical hacking first, rather than focussing on money. Keep trying and don’t get demotivated if you don’t make money initially.” And be ethical, inform the company!

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Published on 18, Jan 2022

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To the stars: Arushi Nath’s planetary defense algorithm won her the Canada-Wide Science Fair twice in a row

At the 2023 Canada-Wide Science Fair awards gala in Edmonton, nearly 900 attendees celebrated the achievements of Canadian students. Among them, fourteen-year-old Arushi Nath, the founder of MonitorMyPlanet, became the first back-to-back best project award winner since 1989-1990, claiming the prize in 2022 and then again 2023. Her project on planetary defense, focusing on detecting unknown asteroids using open data, mathematics, and Python – her algorithm did actually manage to locate three unknown asteroids. Arushi already has a long list of achievements to her name - she came in second at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists in 2023, the winner of the 2023 Young Astronomer Award from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. In 2020, at the age of 11, she won the NASA SpaceAppsGlobal Challenge and in 2017, was the Canada SpaceApps Winner when she was eight years old! A young genius For as long as Arushi can remember, she was fascinated by the night sky, and the many mysteries it represented. "I remember using binoculars to pick out planets and trying to identify patterns. And I still remember seeing the rings of Saturn for the first time, when I was nine" says Arushi, in an interview

says Arushi, in an interview with Global Indian. Academically, she had long since surpassed her school work, and wanted to spend her time taking deep dives into the subjects she loved most – math, coding and astronomy. Her parents – her father is an environmentalist and her mother a writer – supported their daughter fully and when Arushi was six, her dad drove her to her first ever hackathon.

[caption id="attachment_34734" align="aligncenter" width="485"] Arushi Nath, winner of the Best Project award at the Canada-Wide Science Fair 2023[/caption]

The hackathon veteran

This was 2014 and Arushi was the youngest competitor there, by far. NASA's Curiosity rover had just landed on Mars and Arushi was "so fascinated by the idea of being able to land and control something on a whole other planet," she smiles. So, at the hackathon, she and her team made a little robot that could identify obstacles and avoid them. Very complex work for a six-year-old - "We created the physical structure, then coded it," Arushi explains. The robot's ultrasonic sensor could detect obstacles and avoid them. And all this was possible because Arushi had already familiarised herself with Arduino - an open-source electronic prototyping platform that allows users to create interactive electronic objects.

As far as Arushi was concerned, doing projects was the best way to learn. She also wanted to bring her scientific acumen together with the things she cared about. So, in 2018, when she and her friends attended the School Strike for Climate started by Swedish Climate activist Greta Thunberg, Arushi wanted to do more “than raise slogans or wait for others to act,” she said.

S.N.A.C.K.

This led to her designing ‘Schools and NASA Aiding Climate Action by Kids’, which comes with the catchy abbreviation, ‘S.N.A.C.K.’. The project uses satellite imagery to calculate tree densities of schools in Toronto, than ranks and maps them. She also designed a pollution sensor to measure levels in parks and schools across the city, using Arduino, the open source electronics platform that lets users create interactive models. “I wanted school children to come up with local solutions to global challenges,” she says.

Her efforts resulted in her being named the NASA SpaceApps Global Nominee – she had already won the Space Apps Challenge in 2014 and again in 2018. In fact, by the age of 10, she had been at a jaw-dropping 29 hackathons. This was a special win, though, she says, of S.N.A.C.K, as it was her first solo attempt. ” I had to do all the work myself, from thinking of the idea, making it, coding and presenting it to the judges in 40 hours.”

The dragonfly drone

As far as Arushi was concerned, doing projects was the best way to learn. During the Covid-19, she began work on her first major endeavour – building a drone – quite a feat for the young scientist, who was only 10 years old at the time. The idea for the directional dragonfly drone was born during the COVID-19 lockdown. Disturbed by the news of locusts devastating crops in Asia and Africa, Arushi saw an opportunity to make a difference. "These locusts often travel in large swarms, are very fast, and can change direction unpredictably," the Global Indian explained, underlining the urgency of the problem.

Arushi's solution was to use drones for locust control, "as they can fly, follow the locusts, and monitor their behavior," she explains. She also wanted to biomimic nature, choosing the dragonfly because it is by far the most efficient hunter, with a 95 percent success rate in catching prey (in comparison, the success rate of lions is 25 percent and sharks have a 50 percent chance of success). "I made a protoype using a soda can, a motor and a distance sensor I created on Arduino," Arushi says. When she returned from the Ellehacks hackathon, she refined her model, using lego pieces to create a drone "I programmed it to identify all red objects as locusts," she said, describing the functionality of her creation.

The planetary defense system

Given her involvement with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, her prowess with Python and her love for Maths, Arushi was casting around for a way to bring all her passions together. That's how she the idea for planetary defense against unknown asteroids was born. She had learned about robotic telescopes through the RASC and utilised images from these devices – “I took images from robotic telescopes in Canada, Spain, the US, and Australia to get full sky coverage," Arushi explains. She had to sift through these to pinpoint the unknown asteroids, using the Gaia Star Catalogue for information on star positions, and the NASA Horizon dataset, for predictions on the locations of known asteroids. Then, using her coding and math skills, she developed an algorithm to filter out known entities - “I created custom masks to remove all these objects, leaving me with the unknown objects," she explains.

She couldn’t always go it alone, though, often turning to online forums for help. "When I got some errors, I would try for days, even weeks, on my own to find the answer, but if not, I would reach out to specific forums," she says. She also reached out to experts, including Christina Thomas, the lead investigator on NASA’s DART mission. “"I sent her a message, told her about my current project, and asked if I could have a Zoom meeting to talk to her about her project and how it could relate to mine," Arushi smiles. Thomas responded and the two did get on that Zoom meeting. "I actually asked her for pointers on my project and what I could do," she adds.

Finding acclaim

[caption id="attachment_34735" align="aligncenter" width="594"] Arushi receiving her award at the Canada-Wide Science Fair 2023[/caption]

“The whole thing took about ten months to complete,” Arushi says, Her goals changed along the way, so much so that her first goal and the end result were very different.” Finally, her findings were sent to the Minor Planet Center database. Then came waiting for a response. “A couple of weeks later, I got an email and three of the asteroids had my name next to them,” Arushi smiles. She submitted her project to the Toronto Science Fair and won gold, qualifying for the prestigious Canada-Wide Science Fair, where she also went on to win. “I was watching the results with my family and wasn’t expecting my name to pop up again but it did,” she says.

Now, Arushi is continuing work on her planetary defense project. Now that the DART Mission has successfully entered the Didymos (asteroid) system, she wants to measure the changes of the system during this impact. "I began studying the Didymos binary system for a copule of months before the DART impact," she says, "To fully understand how it has been affected."

Follow Arushi Nath on LinkedIn

Project Smile AZ and little acts of kindness by Pravneet and Hurshneet Chadha

(January 18, 2024) 'Anyone can be a smilemaker', believe Pravneet and Hurshneet Chadha, two teen brothers from Phoenix, Arizona. They are the founders of Project Smile AZ and as the name suggests, their aim is simple - spread some joy, which they have done over 80,000 people so far. The idea came to them in 2020 during the pandemic, as the brothers, who were 12 and 15 years old then, watched their parents, both of whom were doctors, fight the disease on the frontlines. They wanted to do something positive too, which led to the start of Project Smile Az. In 2023, their efforts fetched them a Diana Award. Pravneet and Hurshneet were born in New York City and later moved with their family to Phoenix, Arizona. A sense of service had been ingrained in the boys at a very young age. "When I was five, my mother took us to the community kitchen and we would help hand out meals, pack food and cook. It made me feel great," said Pravneet, the younger of the two, who is currently in high school. "We were young and didn't know much about what we were doing but we just knew we

but we just knew we were doing something good."

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Small acts of kindness during the pandemic

So, when the opportunity presented itself in 2020, the Global Indians took it without hesitation. With both parents so actively involved during the pandemic, the situation was often the subject of dinner table conversations. "We had heard on the news how isolated people were, and we were talking about it with our parents," Pravneet told The Pollination Project. Things were shutting down and patients couldn't even meet their own families. "We wanted to make them feel that someone was there for them, that someone cared for them." That's when Hurshneet suggested making some get-well cards for them. It was a simple idea, but as we know, a little kindness can make all the difference.

Over the next two weeks, Pravneet and Hurshneet Chadha worked everyday to make around 200 motivational cards for Covid patients. They designed and drew everyone, and composed the messages themselves. "I remember vividly the first batch of cards we gave was to the hospital, Banner Estrella." They reached out to the CEO asking if it was okay to send cards to the patients and he agreed. "They till have some cards hanging there, which is pretty awesome to see."

It was meant to be a one-off project but when thank you notes started pouring in, they realised they were actually making a difference. "We realised small acts of kindness can have a meaningful impact." They kept at making cards, going on to establish their non-profit with three additional board members and over 1000 volunteers across the US, Canada, Europe and India. Now, the cards go to hospitals, homeless shelters, veterans and cancer centres. They also mobilized young volunteers across the world to join in and do small acts of kindness once in a way. In fact, the movement took off so much that people began donating art supplies to them from around the world.

[caption id="attachment_35302" align="aligncenter" width="411"] Pravneet and Hurshneet Chadha now also do book donation drives, and distribute art supplies, sports equipment and dental hygiene kits to young people in need.[/caption]

Working with foster children

When Pravneet was in elementary school, a classmate, who was a foster child, didn't have art supplies to do a class project. Pravneet shared his things with the boy and returned the next day with a bag of art supplies. "I can never forget the smile on my friend's face," he recalls.

Volunteers who wanted to join but couldn't afford art supplies also contacted them. They coordinated with various organisations in Arizona to share the art kits they received through donations. Now, donating art kits to foster children is a regular part of what they do, and each kit includes cardstock, crayons, colour pencils, stickers, markers, and of course, a message on the box. The children now pitch in to make cards that are donated to senior citizens' homes in Arizona State.

Branching out

Project Smile AZ has expanded from handmade cards to a host of other things. As part of their literacy drive, they collect "gently-used books" to donate to kids in need. Anyone can join in by doing a drive in their neighbourhoods, schools or churches, or simply gather the books they have at home. They also conduct snack drives for at-risk teens that need snacks at school, and distribute dental hygiene kits and sports equipment to underprivileged youth.

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Challenges

Even a project as noble as spreading kindness is not easy to accomplish. "One of the biggest lessons we had to unlearn was that you are too young to do anything on your own," the brothers said in an interview. "We were only 12 and 14 when we started this project." At the start, people didn't believe the boys were doing the work themselves, but they persisted. They built a webpage, opened social media accounts and reached out to clubs and organisations. They connected with youth entrepreneurs around the globe as well.

The idea is to keep it simple and make a change. "These acts don't require much funds or skills, making them inclusive for anyone, anywhere," they say. "We have even worked with children with disabilities who enjoy making cards from our smile art kits. The goal is to create smile makers doing acts of kindness to bring smiles for all."

Follow Project Smile AZ on Instagram and their website

Arshdeep Singh: Teen wildlife photographer seeing the world through the lens

(January 31, 2023) His Instagram page is a gateway into the wilderness. If the beautiful dusky leaf monkey of Malaysia stares right back with those distinctive eyes in one capture, the other has a stunning diademed sifaka revelling in his natural habitat in Madagascar. That’s Arshdeep Singh for you - the teenager behind the phenomenal snapshots that have earned him a credible place among the wildlife photographer fraternity. And he is just 15 years of age. It was a splendid snapshot of a treetop douc that earned this boy from Jalandhar the tag of Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2020. “When I started, I never expected to gain so much recognition at such an early age. I am happy that my photos are loved by millions,” says Arshdeep in an interview with Global Indian. He continued the winning streak by bagging the Asian Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021, and very recently, a picture of a 'winking' owl earned the teenager the Junior Award at the 2022 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. The photo clicked in Bikaner during a family trips, helped him bag the prize, making him the only Indian to make the cut. [caption id="attachment_26994" align="aligncenter" width="725"] The picture

he only Indian to make the cut.

[caption id="attachment_26994" align="aligncenter" width="725"] The picture of a 'winking owl' that won Arshdeep Singh an award[/caption]

It runs in the family

Born in Jalandhar to a businessman father and a homemaker mother, Arshdeep’s fascination for nature and the wildlife translated early on into a passion for capturing them on his lens. He was all of five when his dad Randeep Singh gifted him a DSLR on his birthday, after seeing his young son’s raw talent. “My dad loves photography and pursues it as a hobby. When I was three, I would often see him holding large cameras, and that sight enthralled me. I wanted to do the same,” recalls the boy, who got tips from his father and learnt from YouTube videos.

His first camera forays were capturing snapshots in his grandmother’s backyard, which impressed his father immensely. Soon he started accompanying his father to the outskirts of Kapurthala to birdwatch. “Dad has been my teacher. His love for wildlife rubbed off on me and I started learning photography from him,” reveals the Apeejay School student.

[caption id="attachment_8988" align="aligncenter" width="847"] Arshdeep Singh[/caption]

Following the trail

An avid wildlife enthusiast, Singh loves to explore the fauna across the world. From the tropical forests of Malaysia to Madagascar’s enchanting woodland, the class nine student has explored wildlife across continents. On a trip to Vietnam in 2020, he came close to the red-shanked douc langur, taking a photo which won him the Wildlife Photographer of the Year. On his father’s business trip to the Son Tra nature reserve, Vietnam’s last coastal rainforest, and a habitat for the langur, he captured the mercurial creature. After reading about the endangered species, Arshdeep, waited for more than an hour to capture the douc. “I took more than 1,000 pictures but was unable to get that perfect shot of the treetop douc. After more than an hour, I found the perfect one. If you look at the langur, he looks like he is wearing a grey coat and black-brown pants – that’s what makes this photo so incredible,” says the teenager, who won the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2020 in the 11-to-14-year category.

[caption id="attachment_8986" align="aligncenter" width="817"] Arshdeep Singh's award-winning picture of Tree Douc[/caption]

The accolades, they keep coming

His passion and love for photography have earned him accolades internationally, though the teenager still has to battle fiercely against his family and school to earn respect. “Only my father was supportive of my decision to pursue photography. My mom and grandparents were quite unhappy with my choice. Like every family, they wanted me to focus on studies. Even my school was against it as I was missing classes,” divulges Arshdeep.

However, his accolades and a great body of work have helped change perspectives. “My mom is super proud and so is my school. I now strike a balance between my passion and studies. I mostly indulge in photography during vacations or weekends,” says the boy, who is greatly inspired by Vijayan Thomas, a renowned wildlife photographer.

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Wanderlust through his lens

Singh loves nature and often travels to the hills of Himachal with his Nikon D500 in search of impeccable shots. “Between landscape and wildlife photography, I prefer the latter. While the landscape hardly changes, there is always a thrill in clicking wildlife as nothing is certain. However, it does need a great deal of patience,” he reveals.

Patience helped him earn the award-winning shot of owlets peeping through a pipe. Then a 10-year-old, Arshdeep spotted a pair of owlets in a pipe one balmy Sunday morning (2018) on his way to Kapurthala for birdwatching. “I remember it was 6.30 am when I saw the owlets, and asked my dad to stop the car. Although dad was sceptical as owls are nocturnal birds and not easily spotted in the day, I was sure. We patiently waited for an hour after which both the owlets peeked up at the pipe, and I got a picture-perfect shot,” smiles Arshdeep about the photo that won him the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2018. “It was such an amazing moment that I couldn’t sleep the entire night,” reveals the wildlife buff.

[caption id="attachment_8987" align="aligncenter" width="873"] Owl in pipe[/caption]

A nature lover, he has travelled to over 15 countries, and is keen on creating a greener world. “I have planted trees in my backyard, and would like more people to take the initiative. It’s high time we maintain the ecosystem and help wildlife enjoy their habitats,” affirms Singh.

Accolades aside, Arshdeep wants to help people learn photography. “I am keen to launch a course for amateur photographers. It’s important to give back, and I wish to do so with my course,” Singh signs off. Photography changed his life, and he now wants to help others do so too.

Follow Arshdeep Singh on Instagram and his website

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How 19-year-old Josh Roy’s AI-implemented solution for tackling Cassava Mosaic Disease is winning international praise

(September 13, 2024) When 19-year-old Josh Roy presented his AI-implemented solution for the genetic modification of whiteflies, at the 2024 TKS Focus Hackathon, it emerged as the global winner, beating over 400 competitors from 300 cities and 80 teams. His solution aims to combat the devastating impact of Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD) on cassava plants, an essential food staple in the tropics, and address food insecurity. This groundbreaking project, validated by leaders such as the Global Head of Data Science at GSK, was showcased at London Tech Week 2024, which attracted over 45,000 attendees. It also earned Josh a scholarship to the prestigious Villars Institute's inaugural ecopreneurship program. Josh is in active discussions with researchers, NGOs, and technology companies to bring his solution to market and positively impact millions of lives. This November, the US-based youngster would be flying to West Africa to receive the prestigious Global Entrepreneurs Award. “I am due to collect the award in-person in the world's first entrepreneurship village in Akure, Nigeria, where the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu and billionaire Mrs. Folorunso Alakija would be present as guests of honour,” he tells Global Indian. [caption id="attachment_39224" align="aligncenter" width="508"] Josh

would be present as guests of honour,” he tells Global Indian.

[caption id="attachment_39224" align="aligncenter" width="508"] Josh Roy at the London Tech Week[/caption]

There’s more to Josh’s personality. A passionate musician and host of The CapitalTycoon Podcast, where he engages with successful innovators, he was also the first student in the UK to complete a music GCSE in tabla. 'Tabla is one of the main focuses in my life alongside entrepreneurship. If you think about it, the two go hand in hand, as both require the ability to think creatively,' he remarks.

Dabbling in AI-powered innovation, music and podcasting

The British-born innovator describes himself as ‘a design engineer at the intersection of business, tech, and product design’ and is passionate about creating solutions to make the world a better place. As the developer of AI-powered innovations, he also identifies as an AI ethicist and is working on an AI-powered tabla tutor prototype designed to train students at all levels, aiming to revolutionize tabla education.

When asked how he balances his academics, music and other interests he smiles, “I don't know if I balance it well, and I'm not sure I'm at the stage to offer advice on how to find balance in my work. As my mentor John Spence told me, "If you genuinely enjoy and are obsessed with what you're working on, that's what you should be doing." I believe it's this sense of enjoyment I get from these projects that keeps them from feeling tedious or time-consuming."

Josh looks at each aspect of his life as complementary rather than separate. For instance, he looks at his podcast as an avenue to explore new ideas while engaging with successful innovators who provide insights that often benefit in his own entrepreneurial ventures.

The Indian-origin innovator who was born and brought up in the UK, received training in Tabla by Kuljit Bhamra MBE. “My passion for the tabla offers a creative outlet that recharges me mentally, which is essential when juggling high-pressure projects,” he remarks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xxT7frsjtE

He has chosen an alternative education path through The Knowledge Society (TKS), where learning is deeply integrated with hands-on, real-world problem solving. “This flexible approach has allowed me to dedicate time to all my passions,” he mentions.

Josh got the opportunity to enroll in the two-year TKS programme after bagging the Unicorn Scholarship, which is only awarded to 20 students annually. He ranked in the top 0.06% of the 31,298 students who applied in the most recent batch. Its acceptance rate is far lower than that of the most prestigious universities in the world.

Combatting Cassava Mosaic Disease to address food insecurity

It all started with an upbringing that focused on seva. Even before he turned 10, Josh started volunteering with food banks and distributing meals to underprivileged elderly people. This sparked his commitment to tackling food insecurity. While he was still in school, the opportunities to attend tech conferences opened his eyes to technology’s potential. Later, a few Hackathon victories fuelled his desire to work on the problem of food insecurity all the more, and he came up with the AI-optimized tool for the genetic modification of whiteflies - engineered to combat the devastating impact of Cassava Mosaic Disease that has potential to benefit 35 million Nigerians.

Cassava is a calorie-rich vegetable and the third-largest source of carbohydrates in food in the tropics, after rice and maize, making it an important staple. In African Cassava Mosaic Virus is a plant virus that infects cassava plants, causing mosaic symptoms on leaves and leading to significant yield losses in regions where cassava is a major food source. It is primarily transmitted through infected cassava stem cuttings and by the whitefly Bemisia tabaci. When Josh came to know how millions of people in Nigeria suffer from food insecurity due to the Cassava Mosaic Disease, the AI enthusiast got drawn to solve a solution to the problem, and came up with an AI-driven gene editing solution for the genetic modification of whiteflies that cause the Cassava Mosaic Disease.

[caption id="attachment_39225" align="aligncenter" width="512"] Josh during the Villars Institute's mentorship programme[/caption]

Later, the week-long mentorship he received from ecopreneurs and scientists — pioneers in their respective fields — as part of his scholarship to the prestigious Villars Institute broadened his horizons. “With guidance from experts like Sofia de Meyer and Sofia Khwaja-Horekens, I've refined my food insecurity project, focusing on key stakeholders. Meeting people like the chief economist of Mars Inc. Bruno Roche and my mentor Jini Sebakunzi was an honour, and the experience deepened my connection with nature, and problems in its realm,” he says.

Work in progress

“The next steps involve collaborating with agricultural institutions in Nigeria and across Africa to conduct field trials of the modified whiteflies. This will help demonstrate the tool's effectiveness in real-world conditions. We are also working on partnerships with government bodies and NGOs to create awareness and ensure smooth adoption of this innovation. Once proven in field tests, scaling the technology will involve aligning with policymakers, farmers, and supply chain partners to ensure it reaches the 35 million Nigerians who stand to benefit,” tells Josh.

For the youngster, the goal is to not only combat CMD but to create a sustainable model that can be replicated across different regions suffering from crop diseases, ensuring long-term food security.

“My Father was my support for me from the beginning of my unconventional path and encouraged me going against cultural expectations by working to solve humanity's biggest problems through entrepreneurship or should I say, ecopreneurship,” he remarks.

Other projects

Josh has worked on other AI projects like Project Dynamo while pursuing a consulting challenge with The Knowledge Society (TKS). “It's an initiative I launched to train NGO students in climate change problem-solving and systems thinking, partnering with SOS Children's Villages, India. This project also leveraged AI to translate educational content into regional languages, making it more accessible across diverse communities,” he informs.

Additionally, he has worked alongside Google for another TKS Challenge in AI-driven initiatives, for addressing problems like information overload that its employees face.

[caption id="attachment_39227" align="aligncenter" width="532"] Josh Roy[/caption]

Persistent in seeking mentorship

Josh Roy understands the importance of quality mentorship and has actively pursued it from business leaders.

Determined to reach out to John Spence, the Chairman of Karma Group Global, the youngster tried over 100 email variations until he successfully connected with Spence. “I was inspired by the experience he created at Karma so I was determined to get his mentorship for entrepreneurship. I tried 100 different variations of emails with trial and error as it was hard to find, until his personal hotmail email worked when I found it through a chrome extension,” he says.

This persistence led to a year and a half of valuable email exchanges, culminating in a phone call. “Since then, Spence has been reading my monthly newsletter where I update him and my other mentors on my personal growth. I consider him and his philosophies an influence in my projects and business endeavours. Persistence won at the end,” remarks Josh who loves speaking opportunities.

In addition to Spence, Josh has built strong relationships with other mentors like Kabir Mathur CEO and co-founder, Leen and Manoj Thacker, entrepreneur, and ambassador of Innovaud Swiss. He connected with Kabir during a family trip to Egypt and with Manoj through a friend's introduction. “Both mentors have been instrumental in guiding my journey, with Kabir even nominating me for The Diana Award and supporting my case for an O-1 visa in the US,” he says. Josh’s persistence to seek guidance have earned him mentorships that continue to shape his entrepreneurial path.

In the shoes of a mentor

One of the youngster’s moments of pride has been getting into the shoes of a mentor of 300 youngsters at Toronto in AI and gene editing for 1517 Fund's annual summit.

“I got the opportunity to mentor alongside a panel of 15 other mentors consisting of Zach Laberge (18-year-old founder of Frenter, who raised over three million CAD), Danielle Stratchman (co-founder, Thiel Fellowship) and Michael Patrick-Gibson (author of Paper Belt on Fire),” tells Josh adding, “I recall a Neuralink intern, Kyrylo Kalashnikov, attending the office hours I was hosting. Gaining exposure to some of the brightest minds in North America was both humbling and inspiring. It felt like they were the true mentors, even though I had the label of mentor for a day!”

[caption id="attachment_39228" align="aligncenter" width="497"] Josh during 1517 Fund's office hour[/caption]

The migration story and future

Born in Tooting, London Josh hails from a family with roots in Kolkata. He was raised in Ascot for most of his life, as well as in Lambeth. His mother is a singer-songwriter who was born in London, and did schooling both in India and the UK. His father is a corporate professional who was born and raised in Kolkata. This March, the youngster moved to the US along with his father who got a new job posting. “I decided to relocate with him and pursue my entrepreneurial dreams in the US,” he says.

In the short-term, Josh’s priorities are clear and twofold: "Radical collaboration with agricultural engineers, scientists and farmers to refine and implement my solutions, ensuring credibility and scalability. Secondly, to earn my O-1 Visa that will allow me to better pursue my entrepreneurial endeavours in the US." He is happy that he received his OCI last month.

With prestigious awards, recognitions, scholarships and mentorship the youngster is confident of making his entrepreneurial dream in America come true.

Follow Josh Roy on LinkedIn

Reading Time: 5 mins

Empowering change: Activist Sanya Sharma’s pursuit of a better world

(November 4, 2023) In 2019, as a part of a college project, Sanya Sharma came across several articles and studies about issues like forced marriages, honour killing, and female genital cutting. After several sleepless nights and researching extensively about these issues, the young activist decided to do something about it. "I wanted to raise awareness– I spoke to my father about starting a global youth-led organisation to do this. He said, 'Be the change you wish to see', she said in an interview, adding, "With his words, I founded 'Scarlet Udaan' and got on board eight other students from across the globe to work towards ending FGC." Established in July 2020, Sanya's international youth organisation strives to promote awareness about female genital mutilation (FGC). With team members from various parts of world - including India, the UK, Indonesia, the US, and Canada - the activist wishes to bring awareness on female genital mutilation and the impact it has on the lives of females belonging to different communities all around the world. "It is estimated by the World Health Organisation that 200 million females around the world have undergone FGM. In the organisation's name, 'Scarlet' stands for the strength of womanhood,

ferent communities all around the world. "It is estimated by the World Health Organisation that 200 million females around the world have undergone FGM. In the organisation's name, 'Scarlet' stands for the strength of womanhood, and 'Udaan' is a Hindi word that means 'to soar' or 'to fly'. It symbolises freedom and the limitless possibilities that exist for an individual," said the 21-year-old activist, who recently won the prestigious Diana Award for her humanitarian efforts.

Digital activism

A student of Delhi Public School, Hyderabad, Sanya wasn't just a meticulous student, but she also volunteered for various causes and organisation growing up - including the National Service Scheme and Reap Benefit. After finishing her school education, the young activist got enrolled at Durham University in the United Kingdom to pursue a bachelor's of law. It was here that she first was introduced to the issue of female genital mutilation.

"In my first year at university, I was part of a project that worked on women’s issues," the activist said, "This was the first time I heard about FGC and it was baffling. I had no idea what it was. I started having conversations with friends and family members about this and they had no idea either. Everyone was like ‘What is FGC?’ This just proved to me how inaccessible that information was. FGC is a major global concern. It affects 200 million people. Academia, governments, and international organisations that address the issue do not provide enough nuance, they’re disconnected. They’re also gatekept. They use language that people do not understand, so crucial information gets lost in jargon."

And that’s where Scarlet Udaan stemmed from. While she knew she had to do something about the issue, the activist was still figuring out a way to spread the message. Speeches, meetings, and posters would have only gotten her so far, so she turned to the digital space to talk about the issue. "The digital space is accessible and really expands the possibilities of what creating change could look like. It lets us create a safe space for people having such conversations, ones that may be considered taboo, or that people do not know much about. Our team members are from eight different countries around the world. We were able to come together and work together for a common cause, which might not have been possible offline. We also have regional expertise. This creates very nuanced views of culture and tradition and the complexity of the issues we focus on. The online space has opened up a whole new realm of having access to other organizations and youth activists with similar goals," the activist said.

Miles to go before she sleeps...

Using various social media to promote our cause, including videos and podcasts, the Global Indian has been able to reach out to a broad audience. "We have different tools at our disposal to create change, which allows us to make the information accessible to more people. We have social media posts for a quick introduction to the office, a podcast for a deep dive, detailed Zoom sessions, and live streams for more targeted information. It lets us organise creative ways to make change and have an impact," she said.

The activist plans to take a few of the organisation's activities offline very soon. "As a young person, getting to work with so many other young people and survivors across the world is great. But we’re all also people on the frontlines, both online and offline. Having both brings a community together and we can push for change across the world. Especially during the pandemic, when other channels are closed off," she explained.

Currently pursuing a master's at the Duke University School of Law in the USA, Sanya is on her way to building an organisation that can be a platform for young advocates like her to voice and spread awareness about various issues across the globe. "This will not only allow for different regional and local perspectives to be expressed but create a safe space for people to have conversations about topics that are underreported," the activist expressed.

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