Meet two young Indians who are showcasing civic and trade models at WEF Davos 2026

In the midst of top business and political leaders swarming snow-laden alleys in Davos, two youngsters from India are also showcasing their own stories - one on how citizens and authorities can together solve civic dysfunctions and the other on ensuring easy market access for the blue-collar sector in India.

Ishan Pratap Singh, 22, is a civic entrepreneur and the founder and chairman of Cooperation17, a global social startup. He is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and has been selected as one of 40 worldwide to attend the Annual Meeting at WEF Davos 2026, representing India.

Drishti Medhi, from Assam, is co-founder of QuickGhy that is building an easy market access for the blue-collar sector in India, and is focused on upskilling, training, and empowering them.

Effort to solve ‘civic dysfunction’

Singh is from New Delhi and his Cooperation17 builds cooperation around the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through civic engagement, research, and direct implementation.

Singh said he works with citizens, institutions, businesses, and governments to solve civic dysfunction.

He builds cooperation through regional town halls, stakeholder dialogues, and public meetings with urban and rural local communities in and around Delhi.

"My mission is simple. Civic dysfunction is caused by a trust deficit, information asymmetry, and a lacuna in the harnessing of the post-Covid power of people-to-people contact. Bottom-up, problem-solving civic initiatives are the only path to arrest the backsliding of global cooperation and reverse it," he said.

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Cooperation 17 was born out of the Global Shapers New Delhi Hub in 2024, in conjunction with their Delhi Leadership Forum and Civic Engagement Projects. The Global Shapers Community is an initiative of the World Economic Forum.

Ishan headed Delhi’s efforts for the six impact areas of “Strengthening Civic Engagement”, “Reskilling for the Future”, “Protecting the Planet”, “Delivering Basic Needs”, “Improving Health and Wellbeing”, and “Creating Inclusive Communities”, according to his LinkedIn profile.

At the WEF 2026, he will aim to advance the goal of representing India's story as the definition of sustained development.

He said he aims to form constructive partnerships with the belief that dialogue between parties who do not agree, the right use of frontier technology, and on-ground implementation of the SDGs in rural and urban local communities, can improve the state of our cities, our country, and the world.

Connecting indigenous communities with markets

Medhi, on the other hand, is an entrepreneur focused on skill development and trade, and is looking to ensure representation of indigenous communities of northeast India with regards to market connect and trade access.

Her focus area on tech development aligns with her objective of having India represent its growing innovation hub and be the voice of the grassroot communities of northeast India.

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Her focus on simplifying international trade with the use of technology has led her to launch her own digital trade platform, QuickGhy, an AI recommendation model that helps traders make well-informed decisions on their commodities.

QuickGhy offers a range of services like business consulting, social media marketing, project management, strategic planning, content strategy, digital marketing, brand marketing, market research, android development, and application development, according to Medhi’s LinkedIn profile.