Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, civil servant Gautam Goswami and sitar exponent Anoushka Shankar feature prominently in Time 's 20 Asian Heroes under the age of 40.

Sri Lankan legendary spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, gutsy Pakistani woman Mukhtai Mai, Afghanistan's prominent human rights activist Ahmad Nader Nadery and John Wood, a former Microsoft executive who is building schools and libraries throughout Asia, also figure in the list.

Others who figure in the list of 20 are Hong Suk Chun, a South Korean actor who was the first public figure in the country to admit he is gay and helped change conservative attitudes towards homosexuality.

Royston Tan, a multi-award winning filmmaker, whose willingness to push the creative envelope has made him a hero to Singapore's independent artists, figures in the magazine.

Pham Thi Hue, an HIV-positive mother of one who runs a Vietnamese NGO to educate people about AIDS, and Butset Manurung, an Indonesian conservationist who teaches jungle tribes, also feature in the magazine.

The others are Cambodia's Bokor National Park rangers, Chinese Olympic gold medallist hurdler Liu Xiang, Hong Kong's pro-democracy activist Jackie Hung, Chinese dancer Yuan Yuan Tan, Sabriye Tenberken, a blind German woman who invented Tibetan Braille and teaches blind Tibetan children how to be self sufficient, Japanese fashion icon Nigo, Japanese actor Yuuya Yaqira and Japanese baseball star Ichiro Suzuki.

The magazine will honour the heroes at a gala event in Seoul (South Korea) next month.