PETA International President Poorva Joshipura Named in India Abroad’s Impact 100 List
3rd Janaury 2026, Mumbai
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India Director who is also President of PETA International, has been named in New India Abroad’s Impact 100 list alongside Second Lady of the US Usha Vance, former US Vice President Kamala Harris, mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani, astronaut Sunita Williams, CEO of Google Sundar Pichai, CEO of Microsoft Satya Nadella, actor Mindy Kaling and other Indian-American changemakers. Since joining PETA US in 1999 as an intern and then becoming its Research Associate at just 23, Joshipura is known for devising effective campaigns from the street to the boardroom.
Joshipura has spent more than half her life working to end animal exploitation through provocative protests, undercover investigations, and work in courts and corporate and government offices. She was appointed the first-ever president of PETA International, a new operational arm via PETA Foundation UK spanning the UK, India, Jordan, France, and other countries.
Now based in London, Joshipura was born in the US to parents from Gujarat, India, and was raised in Virginia. She authored the books For a Moment of Taste: How What You Eat Impacts Animals, the Planet, and Your Health – the first-ever in-depth exposé of how animals commonly used for meat, eggs, and dairy are treated in India – as well as Survival at Stake: How Our Treatment of Animals Is Key to Human Existence about how key crises facing us today such as climate change, antibiotic resistance, zoonotic disease and more are all linked to our treatment of animals.
Poorva Joshipura says, “I am honoured and grateful to New India Abroad for this recognition. India’s cultural reverence for animals teaches us that they deserve respect, and that ethos has shaped my work worldwide. Let kindness be our legacy. Make 2026 the year your compassion for animals becomes action.”
Joshipura uses cultural intelligence formed from years of living in different continents, travel and her Indian background to oversee and invigorate global campaigns. Her priorities include using technology and innovation to eliminate animal exploitation, and using modern means like robotic talking animals to educate young people about the vital importance of practicing kindness. She promotes animal rights not only as a moral imperative, but one critical to human survival by highlighting how major crises like the climate catastrophe, antibiotic resistance, and pandemics are inextricably linked to our treatment of them.
Joshipura’s many achievements over the years include stopping a US-based laboratory-animal supplier from setting up a facility in Europe and convincing Mercedes-Benz to be the first car retailer to agree to offer leather-free interior by special order (now Renault is phasing out animal leather and vegan leather comes as standard in many electric cars) and leading successful efforts for a ban on testing cosmetics and their ingredients on animals in India; ending the use of horse-drawn carriages in Petra and Mumbai; and achieving an Indian Supreme Court ban on the use of bulls for entertainment – for which she was burned in effigy by frenzied proponents of a cruel “game” – a prohibition which remains in place in most of the country.
