MLDS 2027 · Awards · Est. 2019

    The AIM 40 Under 40 AI Builders Awards honour India's engineers shipping AI into production.

    Earlier called the 40 Under 40 Data Scientists Awards. Presented on stage at MLDS 2027.

    Editions08
    Honorees300+
    Age cap40
    Submit nominations
    MLDS 2026 award honorees on stage

    2026 · Hall of Honor

    The 2026 cohort on the MLDS stage in Bengaluru.

    Eligibility

    For the builders shipping AI into production

    Who can apply

    India-linked, hands-on AI builders under 40 who shipped meaningful production impact in the past 18 months — across startups, enterprises and GCCs.

    How we choose

    A weighted rubric scoring production impact, technical depth, scale and reliability, open source signal, business outcomes and peer endorsements.

    40 Under 40 AI Builders Awards honorees at MLDS

    40 Under 40 · MLDS

    Hall of Honor

    Evaluation · The weighted rubric

    How the jury scores every nomination

    01 / 03

    Production impact

    Systems shipped and running in the real world — not prototypes, not pilots, not slideware.

    40 Under 40 AI Builders award being presented on stage at MLDS
    02 / 03

    Technical depth

    Rigour of the engineering behind the work: scale, reliability, and open source signal.

    An honoree receiving the 40 Under 40 AI Builders trophy
    03 / 03

    Business outcomes

    Measurable results for users and the organisation, backed by peer endorsements.

    Close-up of the 40 Under 40 AI Builders Awards 2026 plaque
    GalleryMoments from the stage

    A night of recognition.

    Glimpses from past Minsky Awards — honoring the visionaries shaping India's AI landscape.

    MLDS 2024 award winners
    Award handover at the 40 Under 40 ceremony
    Awards eligibility - builders shipping AI
    Charchit Bahl receiving the 40 Under 40 award
    40 Under 40 honorees on stage
    MLDS 2026 awards honorees
    01 / 06
    Minsky Awards

    Hall of Honor

    Eight editions of honorees

    The practitioners who have shaped how India builds with AI — recognised year after year.

    38 honorees

    Aaditya Raghavendran

    Vertical Head & Associate Director – Retail & Marketplaces, LatentView Analytics

    Ajith K P

    VP – Principal Applied Scientist, Kotak 811

    Amit R Shah

    Delivery Unit Head, MathCo

    Arijit Mallick

    Senior Manager – AI and Emerging Technologies, Merkle Inc

    Arindam Roy

    Vice President – Client Partner, Gramener (A Straive Company)

    Arti Mishra

    Senior Manager – Decision Scientist, Enterprise Analytics, Tesco Business Solutions

    Arpit Kapoor

    Senior Staff Data Scientist, ServiceNow

    Ankush Chopra

    Senior Director – AI Center of Excellence, Tredence Analytics Solutions

    Ayushman Gupta

    Senior Manager, Genpact

    Charchit Bahl

    Vice President, EXL Services

    Chiranjeev Patidar

    Principal Data Scientist, Franklin Templeton Investments Management

    Deep Srivastava

    Data Science Expert, SAP Labs India

    Dhairya Badiyani

    Director – Technology Enablement (AI), Riveron

    Divyanshu Shekhar

    AI Practice Head, Bajaj Auto Credit Limited

    Dr. Daisy Das

    Manager Data Scientist, State Bank of India

    Gaurav Nagar

    Co-Founder and Senior Director – Engineering, Acceldata

    Hema Durairaj

    Senior Data Scientist, Publicis Sapient

    Karan Sindwani

    Senior Applied Scientist, Amazon Web Services

    Lakshmi Devi Prakash

    Vice President – Applied AI ML Lead, JP Morgan Chase & Co

    Murari Ramuka

    Senior AI Technologist, Microsoft

    Nikhil Gundawar

    Director of Analytics and Insights, Slice

    Pragati Chopade

    Data Scientist Lead, Johnson Controls

    Prerit Khandelwal

    Director – Product Analytics, Razorpay

    Ranjani Subramaniam

    Data Analytics & System Manager, Shell Engineering

    Shital Patil

    AI Expert, Robert Bosch Middle East Dubai

    Shrutorsi Nundy

    Vice President – Global Data Science & GenAI for Citi Wealth, Citi

    Siddhesh

    Technical Product Manager, Mastercard

    Soumitra Chatterjee

    Senior Manager – Applied AI POD, Dentsu Global Services

    Sunny Manchanda

    Director, DRDO Young Scientist Laboratory – Artificial Intelligence, Bangalore

    Suvro Shankar Ghosh

    Head- AI Solution (MFCWL), Mahindra Group

    Sweta Singh

    Senior Manager- Data Science & AI, Commonwealth Bank of Australia

    Swati Upadhyaya

    Principal – Consulting, IQVIA

    Swarnendu Bhattacharya

    Senior Manager, Unilever

    Taniya Ghosh

    Senior Engineering Manager – AI, Salesforce India

    Vidya Lakshmy

    Manager – Data Science, Optum (UHG)

    Vinay Kumar

    Director DS, Tiger Analytics India Consulting

    Vishal Nagpal

    Director of AI and Data, Best Buy

    Vivek Parihar

    Head of Engineering & CISO, Purplle.com

    Submit nominationsPresented at MLDS 2027

    Winner voices

    What the honorees say

    “Truly honored to be recognized as one of the top 40 under 40 data scientists from Analytics India Magazine. This award is a testament to the hard work and dedication that I have put into my craft.”

    Jitendra Gupta

    Baker Hughes

    “Honoured to have received the #40under40 Data Scientists award. Got a chance to meet a lot of folks in the industry and connect with them.”

    Sudalai Rajkumar — SRK

    Growfin.ai

    “It was a great experience to connect and learn from experts in data science. Really enjoyed talking about 'Solving business problems with computer vision' in the midst of a fantastic audience.”

    Praveen Jesudhas

    Tiger Analytics

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