An entrepreneur is someone who forges ahead even when there is only a small chance of success! They find thrill and satisfaction in succeeding against the odds and do not let the voices of nay-sayers drown out their own inner voice. By having the courage to follow their dreams and intuition, entrepreneurs chart the course of their magical journey.   

Passion and opportunity guide the entrepreneurial journey. Young entrepreneurs exemplify this the best. They’ve proven that it is more important to do your best rather than being the best – success then will be consequential! It is their journey that now inspires others to create a success story of their own! Here are eleven successful entrepreneurs from India who started their journey as teenagers and succeeded because they had a vision, the drive and a strong belief in themselves!  

1. Ritesh Agarwal

Passionate about travelling, 17-year-old Ritesh realised the need for affordable hotels that offered good services. His unique drive for identifying, understanding and solving the problem helped him create a huge empire that was built on the concept of fulfilling the requirements of the travellers – affordable rooms with standard facilities. His venture, OYO (On Your Own) is valued at more than $10 billion and Ritesh’s net worth is more than $1 billion, which makes him the world’s second-youngest self-made billionaire.  

2. Advait Thakur

Advait is a young tech entrepreneur who is changing the world. He founded his own tech company Apex Infosys when he was 12 years old. The company is now a global technology and innovation company that specialises in IoT- related services and products, AI and Health Tech sectors. Advait is also the youngest Google, Bing and Hubspot Certified Professional.  

3. Vinusha MK

A simple cake baking task to surprise her mother on her birthday led Vinusha to start an enterprise of her own – Four Seasons Pastry. She was 9 years old at that time. 

Vinusha bakes and sells cupcakes inspired by the four seasons. She is scaling up her business and has already launched a baking kit that comes complete with ingredients and recipes, homemade chocolates, sandwiches and more. Needless to say, every order here is baked with passion.    

4. Tilak Mehta

Inspiration for a startup can come from anywhere. Nothing illustrates this better than Tilak Mehta and his success story Paper N Parcels. The story goes something like this – 13 year old Tilak needed some books urgently from the other part of Mumbai city. But despite waiting all day for his father to return from work so he could go and get them, young Tilak was left disappointed – his father was just too tired. Instead of sulking or throwing a tantrum, Tilak struck gold from the situation. He conceptualised a startup that could deliver small parcels within the city on the same day. His venture, Paper N Parcels immediately found traction and took off. It now employs over 200 workers and 300 dabbawallas and handles over 1200 deliveries in a day. Tilak is among the youngest Forbes panelists, a TEDx speaker and a Youngest Entrepreneur awardee in Logistics Sector.  

5. Sreelakshmi Suresh

Sreelakshmi began using computers at the age of 3, started designing at 4, designed her first website at the age of 6 and owned a startup at 11! Life has certainly been on the fast lane for her! She has often been regarded as one of the Youngest CEOs and Youngest Web Designers. Apart from her startup eDesign, Sreelakshmi also owns another company TinyLogo.

6. Akhilendra Sahu

‘World’s Youngest Serial Entrepreneur’. Not a bad title to have, right?  Akhilendra started at the age of 16 by doing freelancing work to gain experience. By sheer hard work and persistence, he achieved great success. He owns and runs ASTNT Technologies, ASTNT Hosting, ASTNT Media, Technical Next, ASTNT Newswire, StartUp199, and a slew of other companies. He is also the co-founder of Scoop Beats Private Limited. 

7. Rohit Kashyap

As a young boy from a small town in Bihar, Rohit did not have access to a lot of resources. Yet, he was winning Olympiads! He also ranked in the top 1000 in the ICAI Commerce Wizard. Not one to hog the limelight all by himself, Rohit offered to tutor others to achieve success. But the response he received overwhelmed him. This gave him the idea to start a school that will help young achievers and thus, at the young age of 14, he founded Maytree School of Entrepreneurship.

8. Deepak Ravindran

Deepak started his entrepreneurial journey when he was 17. Swades Solutions and just4sale.com were his early forays into the world of entrepreneurship. But it was his venture Innoz Technologies Pvt. Ltd. that really put him in the big league. The idea was inspired by a vegetable purchase interaction between his mother and a vendor. His innovation helped people who had no internet access data without having to go online. 

Through determination and hard work, Innoz today counts some of the biggest names like Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel, Idea, Wikipedia, Vuclip, Rotten Tomatoes, Zomato, Snapdeal, Bing, Worldweatheronline, etc., as clients. 

9. Farrhad Acidwalla

Farrhad’s entrepreneurial calibre was evident from the age of 13 when he created an online community about aero-modelling and aviation. When he was 17 he was interviewed by CNN and it was soon after that he started his successful venture Rockstah Media. Rockstah Media is a one-stop style destination for web development, marketing and beyond.

10. Nithin Kamath

Nithin Kamath began trading stocks when he was just 17. His passion led him to establish Zerodha in 2007. Zerodha has over 7 million users and Nithin Kamath’s net assets have swelled to $1.9 billion, making him the third-biggest stockbroker in the country, just after ICICI and HDFC.

11. Appalla Saikiran

A prosperous professional career before even crossing the teenage years – just what Appalla achieved with his pathbreaking idea and the right mentorship. Appalla, an Ivy Early Entrepreneur, founded SCOPE at the age of 17. The idea was inspired from his own struggle to find the right mentors, investors and connect with other entrepreneurs in his early days of entrepreneurship. SCOPE is a new-age holistic platform that brings together aspiring entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, investors and industry experts. Awards and accolades have followed Appalla since – Global Kids Achievers Award, a spot at the Junior CEO program certified by Brown University and an invitation by Google to visit their office, a few among the many.

FDI inflows into India are expected to register robust growth in 2026, supported by strong macroeconomic fundamentals, big-ticket investment announcements, sustained efforts to improve the ease of doing business, and a new generation of investment-linked trade pacts.

To ensure that India remains an attractive and investor-friendly destination, the government reviews the FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) policy on an ongoing basis and makes changes from time to time after holding extensive consultations with stakeholders.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has this year held a series of meetings with stakeholders on ways to promote FDI. In November, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal also held consultations on ways to attract greater investments by making processes faster, smoother, and more efficient.

Investor-friendly policies and regulatory practices, strong return on investments, a talented workforce, easing compliance burdens, decriminalising minor industry-related offences, and streamlined approvals are key measures that are keeping foreign investors focused on India despite global challenges.

In 2024-25, total foreign direct investments (FDI) have crossed USD 80.5 billion amid global uncertainties. Gross overseas investments during January-October 2025 have crossed USD 60 billion.

DPIIT Secretary Amardeep Singh Bhatia said India has attracted remarkable investments in the last eleven years due to a series of measures taken by the government.

“It has touched an all-time high of USD 80.62 billion in 2024-25. We are hopeful that this year (2026), FDI may cross the last year’s data of USD 80.62 billion,” he told PTI.

India is also banking on its free trade agreement with the four-nation European Free Trade Association (EFTA), under which the bloc has committed to invest USD 100 billion in foreign direct investment into the country over 15 years.

The pact came into force on October 1, 2025, and on the very day of its implementation, Swiss healthcare major Roche Pharma announced a commitment to invest 1.5 billion Swiss francs (about Rs 17,000 crore) in India over the next five years.

This will be pure FDI and not foreign institutional or portfolio investments by sovereign wealth funds of the EFTA nations – Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.

A similar commitment of USD 20 billion has been made by New Zealand under its trade pact with India, which is slated to be implemented in 2026.

Certain reports have also projected a positive outlook for foreign direct investment into India.

According to UNCTAD’s World Investment Report 2025, global FDI flows fell by 11 per cent in 2024 to USD 1.5 trillion. However, this figure conceals wide differences in performance across economies.

Developed countries experienced a 22 per cent contraction, while flows to developing economies were stable. In Asia, particularly, east and southeast Asia, as well as India, investors maintained strong project activity, the report has said.

Some of the major global firms have announced big-ticket investments this year.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has announced an investment of USD 17.5 billion by 2030 to help build infrastructure and sovereign capabilities for the country’s AI-first future.

Amazon plans to invest USD 35 billion in India over the next five years to expand its businesses from quick commerce to cloud computing and artificial intelligence.

Google will invest USD 15 billion over the next five years to set up an AI hub in India.

iPhone maker Apple is expanding its presence in India, and South Korean electronics major Samsung is also expanding its manufacturing portfolio in the country.

Arcelormittal Nippon Steel India is aiming to increase the colour-coated steel capacity to 10 lakh tonnes per year by 2026 from the present 7 lakh tonnes.

As per the National Statistical Office (NSO), the Indian economy grew 8.2 per cent in the second quarter of 2025-26. The government, on its part, has come out with the second edition of the Jan Viswas bill to promote ease of doing business by decriminalising minor industry-related offences.

Experts, too, have stated that India’s strong economic fundamentals and resilience, along with a sustained reform push, will be a big reason for a revival of FDI in 2026.

“As India diversifies its economic relationships amid geopolitical uncertainties and moves up the value chain in manufacturing and services, these developments are expected to channel greater long-term FDI into services, software and electronics,” Rumki Majumdar, Economist, Deloitte India, said.

Rudra Kumar Pandey, Partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, said FDI from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries has emerged as a strategic and increasingly durable pillar of India’s foreign investment landscape.

“Technology-led services are expected to remain the primary magnet for foreign capital, with increasing emphasis on artificial intelligence, data analytics, cloud infrastructure, and Global Capability Centres focused on AI deployment and applied research,” he added.

The top investors in India include Mauritius and Singapore (together accounting for about 49 per cent), followed by the US (10 per cent), the Netherlands (7.2 per cent), Japan (6 per cent) and the UK (5 per cent).

The key sectors which attracted the maximum FDI in India include the services segment, computer software and hardware, telecommunications, trading, construction development, automobile, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

FDI is allowed through the automatic route in most of the sectors, while in areas such as telecom, media, pharmaceuticals and insurance, the government approval is required for foreign investors.

At present, FDI is prohibited in certain sectors. They are lottery, gambling and betting, chit funds, nidhi company, real estate business, and manufacturing of cigars, cheroots, cigarillos and cigarettes using tobacco.

FDI is important as India would require huge investments in the coming years for its infrastructure sector to boost growth. Healthy foreign inflows also help in maintaining the balance of payments and the value of the rupee.

Source: EconomicTimes

Silver rate today: Silver prices touched a new all-time high of 2,36,350 per kg in the national capital, surged by ₹9,350 on Friday. The rally was driven by positive global cues.

On Wednesday, the precious metal had settled at 2,27,000 per kg. Over the last four trading sessions, silver has rallied by ₹32,250, or 15.8 per cent, rising from 2,04,100 per kg since December 19.

In the international markets, spot silver surged past the $75-per-ounce level for the first time in overseas trade, jumping $3.72, or 5.18%, to scale a fresh record high of $75.63 per ounce.

On a calendar-year basis, silver has witnessed a sharp jump of ₹1,46,650, or 163.5 per cent, from ₹89,700 per kg recorded on December 31, 2024.

“MCX Silver extended its sharp advance to ₹2,40,935 per kg, registering a steep rise of nearly ₹30,000 over the past week and scaling fresh lifetime highs in line with global cues and supply constraints. The broader rising channel continues to support the move, reinforcing the strength of the trend,” said Ponmudi R, CEO of Enrich Money.

Meanwhile, gold prices have surged by 63,350 so far this year, marking an 80.24% rise from ₹78,950 per 10 grams as of December 31, 2024.

How much silver is expected to rise in 2026?

NS Ramaswamy, Head of Commodity & CRM, Ventura, told Mint that silver prices can further surge by 18% from present levels, as the white metal tends to perform better during periods of strong global economic growth with significant industrial use.

“Conversely for Silver, during economic downturns, industrial demand can drop sharply, causing prices to fall more dramatically than gold. Rally in silver is considered more tenable and likely to outperform gold in the near term, although it comes with higher volatility. It’s the price inelastic, smaller market size and inelastic supply feature supporting Silver fundamentally,” Ramaswamy said.

Gold vs Silver: Which metal should you buy?

Ramaswamy believes that both metals should be viewed discretely as a “trader” and “investor” mentality. The choice depends on individual risk tolerance.

e further explained that investment in gold means a better stability and wealth preservation as a safe haven, while Silver offers higher growth potential with higher volatility which is preferred by the trader community.

“Silver often swings more while Gold appears to move very cautiously in a steadier fashion. Hence a mix of both is recommended. The best choice depends on the investment horizon, risk appetite and financial goal. On a period comparison of the bullish rally, Gold is already in a 10-Year bull run and Silver close to 5 ½ Year rally calling for a lot of catch-up,” he added.

Disclaimer: This story is for educational purposes only. The views and recommendations above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, not Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.

Source: livemint