Ashwin Mahesh goes door to door while campaigning in Bengaluru. Amirtharaj Stephen for The National
Ashwin Mahesh goes door to door while campaigning in Bengaluru. Amirtharaj Stephen for The National
Ashwin Mahesh goes door to door while campaigning in Bengaluru. Amirtharaj Stephen for The National
Ashwin Mahesh goes door to door while campaigning in Bengaluru. Amirtharaj Stephen for The National

Young professionals seek to change face of India's politics


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BENGALURU // Ashwin Mahesh is not your average Indian politician - and he is counting on that to win him a seat in the state legislature today.

Born and raised in Karnataka, he moved to the United States in the early 1990s and lived there for more than a decade, completing a doctorate in geophysics and then working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Mr Mahesh moved back to India in 2004 and decided that his experience would be better utilised trying to improve the quality of public life.

Mr Mahesh, 43, will contest the Karnataka assembly elections from the Bommanahalli constituency in Bengaluru. He is part of a small but growing number of young professionals across India who, frustrated with poor and corrupt governance, have decided to run for public office.

Most of these candidates are running as independents or, like Mr Mahesh, on the platforms of small parties such as Lok Satta, which are unallied to behemoths such as the Indian National Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"What has happened is, of late, development demands have peaked, and people are migrating to politics to solve these problems, whereas earlier, the need was perhaps not as urgent," Mr Mahesh said.

It was a good thing, Mr Mahesh said, that "people are going at it independently, because there's no evidence that working within a large party gives you space to do good work".

But independent and small parties are up against significant odds, he admitted. Gesturing around his office - located in a bungalow on a quiet street - he said: "Resources are the biggest issue. No one can deny that."

After he returned to India, Mr Mahesh nurtured an interest in urban policy, developing public information systems that improved traffic management systems, bus routes and other public services.

"In India, cities and city systems are becoming more and more important," he said. "And we worked on the premise that if you bring to the surface enough information about how a city works, you can understand problems better and respond to them."

One of Mr Mahesh's most prominent achievements was designing Big10, a direction-based bus service that improved the efficiency of some major bus routes in Bengaluru.

Rajeev Gowda, a professor at the Indian Institute of Management in Bengaluru and a member of the Congress party, said Mr Mahesh's ideas earned him a good reputation in the field of urban policy.

"He has always shown a certain innovative way of looking at urban problems and solutions," Mr Gowda said.

Mr Mahesh's first political campaign came last year, when he ran for the upper house of the Karnataka assembly.

He finished fourth, but as the Bangalore Mirror newspaper noted at the time, if every one of the voters Mr Mahesh enrolled for voting had turned up to cast their ballot on election day, "he would have won by a thumping majority".

Lok Satta lacks campaign funding compared to the deep pockets of its rivals.

"The bigger parties have the kind of money where they will offer short-term inducements such as liquor or money or laptops or bicycles, instead of giving real, long-term governing solutions," said Karthik Chandra, who works in Lok Satta's research and advocacy division.

But Mr Mahesh pointed out that "the guy who spends the most does not always win. And elections are different when you change candidates, because you can draw out a new set of voters or give existing voters new choices".

His campaign is not burning a lot of money, but it is spending on getting his message out through radio advertisements, the internet and hoardings.

"The lesson of Indian politics has always been that brand presence is more important than delivery, which is why the Congress and the BJP's candidates do well," he said.

"But I think candidates also need to offer reasonably good answers to complex questions, and I believe that is what we are doing."

MWTC

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THE BIO

Age: 33

Favourite quote: “If you’re going through hell, keep going” Winston Churchill

Favourite breed of dog: All of them. I can’t possibly pick a favourite.

Favourite place in the UAE: The Stray Dogs Centre in Umm Al Quwain. It sounds predictable, but it honestly is my favourite place to spend time. Surrounded by hundreds of dogs that love you - what could possibly be better than that?

Favourite colour: All the colours that dogs come in

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4
UAE central contracts

Full time contracts

Rohan Mustafa, Ahmed Raza, Mohammed Usman, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Sultan Ahmed, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid

Part time contracts

Aryan Lakra, Ansh Tandon, Karthik Meiyappan, Rahul Bhatia, Alishan Sharafu, CP Rizwaan, Basil Hameed, Matiullah, Fahad Nawaz, Sanchit Sharma

GAC GS8 Specs

Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo

Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm

Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm

Transmission: 8-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km

On sale: Now

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UAE Rugby finals day

Games being played at The Sevens, Dubai

2pm, UAE Conference final

Dubai Tigers v Al Ain Amblers

4pm, UAE Premiership final

Abu Dhabi Harlequins v Jebel Ali Dragons

Company profile

Name: Dukkantek 

Started: January 2021 

Founders: Sanad Yaghi, Ali Al Sayegh and Shadi Joulani 

Based: UAE 

Number of employees: 140 

Sector: B2B Vertical SaaS(software as a service) 

Investment: $5.2 million 

Funding stage: Seed round 

Investors: Global Founders Capital, Colle Capital Partners, Wamda Capital, Plug and Play, Comma Capital, Nowais Capital, Annex Investments and AMK Investment Office  

Biog

Mr Kandhari is legally authorised to conduct marriages in the gurdwara

He has officiated weddings of Sikhs and people of different faiths from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Russia, the US and Canada

Father of two sons, grandfather of six

Plays golf once a week

Enjoys trying new holiday destinations with his wife and family

Walks for an hour every morning

Completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Loyola College, Chennai, India

2019 is a milestone because he completes 50 years in business

 

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Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Electric scooters: some rules to remember
  • Riders must be 14-years-old or over
  • Wear a protective helmet
  • Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
  • Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
  • Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
  • Do not drive outside designated lanes
Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Honeymoonish
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At a glance - Zayed Sustainability Prize 2020

Launched: 2008

Categories: Health, energy, water, food, global high schools

Prize: Dh2.2 million (Dh360,000 for global high schools category)

Winners’ announcement: Monday, January 13

 

Impact in numbers

335 million people positively impacted by projects

430,000 jobs created

10 million people given access to clean and affordable drinking water

50 million homes powered by renewable energy

6.5 billion litres of water saved

26 million school children given solar lighting

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Biog

Age: 50

Known as the UAE’s strongest man

Favourite dish: “Everything and sea food”

Hobbies: Drawing, basketball and poetry

Favourite car: Any classic car

Favourite superhero: The Hulk original

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
When is VAR used?

Goals

Penalty decisions

Direct red-card incidents

Mistaken identity