While many of us have spent our childhood days watching cartoons, some kids were more focused on working on their talent and passion. 

Yup, these child prodigies from India have achieved more than we can in a lifetime and they’ve earned global recognition for it.

1. Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa is a chess prodigy from Chennai who became the youngest international master in history at the age of 10 in 2016. 

That’s not all. In 2018 Rameshbabu became the fourth-youngest person ever to achieve the title of Grandmaster after Sergey Karjakin, Gukesh D and Javokhir Sindarov. He’s won many titles internationally too. In October 2019, he created history by winning the World Youth Championships in the Under 18 section with a score of 9/11. And, in December 2019, he also became the second-youngest person to be rated 2600 Elo. He achieved this feat when he was 14 years, 3 months and 24 days old. Now, he’s 15 years old and he continues to follow his passion. 

2. Lydian Nadhaswaram is a young Indian pianist from Chennai who won the CBS talent show, The World’s Best in 2019 at the age of 13. 

Lydian also won $1 million as prize money. He stunned the judges on the show by playing 280 beats per minute. He then, increased his speed to 325 beats per minutes. How did he manage to do that? Well, Lydian spent 4 years at  A.R. Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory and, now he’s tutored by his father, Varshan Sathish, who is a music director. After winning the show he also featured on the Ellen DeGeneres show. His love for music has grown ever since. He also has his own YouTube channel and Instagram page where he shares his music and composition with his fans.

3. Licypriya Kangujam, a climate activist from Manipur was one of the youngest speakers at the 2019 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP2) that was held in Spain in 2019. She was only 8 years old then. 

Licypriya is one of the youngest climate activists in the world and she’s popularly known as India’s Greta Thunberg. At the age of 6, she was already attending meetings, protesting and organising. She has been campaigning for climate change in India since 2018. She came into the limelight in 2019 after she started spending a week outside the Indian parliament House to draw the attention of PM Narendra Modi. In August 2019, she was honoured with the “World Children Peace Prize 2019” in Australia. She was also given the title of the “Rising Star” by the Earth Day Network headquarters based in Washington, D.C. In January 2020, she also received the “Global Child Prodigy Award 2020” in New Delhi. She’s still actively advocating for change in climate laws in India through her Instagram page and Twitter handle. 

4. Arshdeep Singh is a young wildlife photographer from Jalandhar who created history by winning the most prestigious award Young Wildlife Photographer of The Year– Asia in 2018 when he was just 10 years old.

He won the award for his candid snap of the two owlets peeping out of a waste pipe. He developed a passion for photography when he his father gifted a camera and a lens to him on his 5th birthday. He started clicking photos of his pets and birds around the house and that’s how he developed interest in wildlife photography. He has won many titles ever since. In 2020, he was honoured with the title of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2020 (11-14 years category) for his image of Treetop Douc. He has his own website where you can check out his work. 

5. Kautilya Pandit is a 5-year-old genius from Haryana who has an IQ of 130 points. This has earned him the title of “Google Boy.” 

Pandit is known as the Human Computer for a reason. He is extraordinarily good with general knowledge and current affairs. Without any guidance, he has the ability to recall the necessary details and statistics of 213 countries. With an IQ of over 130 points, he’s truly a gifted kid. He was just 6 years old when he participated in Kaun Banega Crorepati? He was the youngest contestant in the history of the show to reach the hot seat. In 2016, the little boy also addressed 150 CEOs from multiple sectors as a guest speaker at HM Network Advantage India. Pandit was honoured with the Global Child Prodigy Award in January 2020 and he was also listed among the Top 100 Child Prodigies of the year. Click here to follow him on Instagram. 

6. Yathaarth Murthy is a 14-year-old anthemologist from Karnataka who has earned laurels by singing the national anthems of over 260 countries. He has also featured in the Limca Book of Records not once but twice.

Murthy can also play the national anthems on a keyboard. He entered the Limca Book of Records in 2017 for being able to sing the maximum number of national anthems. Now, he is keen on getting his name in the Guinness Book of Records. He has won many titles and awards over the past few years. In fact in January 2020, he received the Top 100 Global Child Prodigy Award. He was also recognized as one of the Top 10 Child Prodigies of India. 

7. Nihal Raj, is one of the youngest chefs in the world. He’s 10 years old and he’s known for his extraordinary inborn skill and talent for cooking. 

Raj hails from Kerala and he’s fondly known as Little Chef Kicha. He has his own YouTube channel and website where he regularly posts videos of his new recipes. Mickey Mouse Mango Ice Cream was his very own creation that got him fame in 2015.  After that, he was all over the internet. Even Facebook signed a whopping $2000 deal with him. And, he also featured on, The Ellen DeGeneres Show where he taught Ellen to cook Kerala’s popular breakfast ‘Puttu.’ Click here to follow him on Instagram. 

8. Advait Kolarkar is a 5-year-old art prodigy from Canada. He has held exhibitions in India, US and Canada and he’s selling his paintings for over thousand dollars. 

Advait discovered his fascination for color and composition when he was less than a year old. And, by the time he turned two, he already knew how to set apart the minutest of color differences. Before shifting to Canada with his family, he hosted an exhibition of his fine work in the Art2Day gallery in Pune at the age of two. Later, he held a solo exhibition at the Saint John Arts Centre in Canada called the ‘Color Blizzard’ where he ended up selling paintings worth $2000. Recently, his work was displayed at the annual Artexpo in New York, making him the youngest to ever do so in 40 years of history. And, so far he has sold 38 paintings. Click here to check out his art. 

9. Master Truptraj Pandya was awarded with a certificate from the Guinness Book of World Records for being the youngest ever Tabla Master when he was 6 years old in 2013. 

He started playing the tabla when he was just 18 months old. His first public performance was at the age of two at Mumbai’s Somaiya college. When he turned 3, he played live at the All India Radio. He also played for Doordarshan when he was 4-years-old. These days he continues to follow his passion. He also has his own website that you can check out to know more about this talented kid. 

10. Tilak Mehta is one of the youngest entrepreneurs from India. At 13 he made a Digital Courier Company by providing One-Day parcel service, with the help of “Mumbai Dabbawala.”

Tilak, who is now 15, is the founder of a company called ‘Paper N Parcels’ that was established in 2018. He decided to venture into logistics when he was in class 7. His company, Papers N Parcels is a startup which provides door to door pick-up & delivery services ranging from a pen to all your essential documents. In January 2020, he was awarded the Global Child Prodigy Award and he was also featured in the Top 100 Prodigies List of 2020. Now, he has renounced companies like Metropolis and Hindustan times. Click here to follow him on Instagram. 

They are all making us proud and we can’t thank them enough. Kudos!