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."
ssubramanian@thenational.ae
Company%20Profile
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Tree of Hell
Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla
Director: Raed Zeno
Rating: 4/5
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
Points to remember
- Debate the issue, don't attack the person
- Build the relationship and dialogue by seeking to find common ground
- Express passion for the issue but be aware of when you're losing control or when there's anger. If there is, pause and take some time out.
- Listen actively without interrupting
- Avoid assumptions, seek understanding, ask questions
Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
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TEST SQUADS
Bangladesh: Mushfiqur Rahim (captain), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Liton Das, Shakib Al Hasan, Mominul Haque, Nasir Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Mehedi Hasan, Shafiul Islam, Taijul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman and Taskin Ahmed.
Australia: Steve Smith (captain), David Warner, Ashton Agar, Hilton Cartwright, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Matthew Wade, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Matt Renshaw, Mitchell Swepson and Jackson Bird.
The%20specs
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Low turnout
Two months before the first round on April 10, the appetite of voters for the election is low.
Mathieu Gallard, account manager with Ipsos, which conducted the most recent poll, said current forecasts suggested only two-thirds were "very likely" to vote in the first round, compared with a 78 per cent turnout in the 2017 presidential elections.
"It depends on how interesting the campaign is on their main concerns," he told The National. "Just now, it's hard to say who, between Macron and the candidates of the right, would be most affected by a low turnout."
The Sky Is Pink
Director: Shonali Bose
Cast: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Farhan Akhtar, Zaira Wasim, Rohit Saraf
Three stars
Scoreline
Abu Dhabi Harlequins 17
Jebel Ali Dragons 20
Harlequins Tries: Kinivilliame, Stevenson; Cons: Stevenson 2; Pen: Stevenson
Dragons Tries: Naisau, Fourie; Cons: Love 2; Pens: Love 2
The specs
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Torque: 659Nm
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What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
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Initial investment: Undisclosed
Did you know?
Brunch has been around, is some form or another, for more than a century. The word was first mentioned in print in an 1895 edition of Hunter’s Weekly, after making the rounds among university students in Britain. The article, entitled Brunch: A Plea, argued the case for a later, more sociable weekend meal. “By eliminating the need to get up early on Sunday, brunch would make life brighter for Saturday night carousers. It would promote human happiness in other ways as well,” the piece read. “It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.” More than 100 years later, author Guy Beringer’s words still ring true, especially in the UAE, where brunches are often used to mark special, sociable occasions.
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
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Can NRIs vote in the election?
Indians residing overseas cannot cast their ballot abroad
Non-resident Indians or NRIs can vote only by going to a polling booth in their home constituency
There are about 3.1 million NRIs living overseas
Indians have urged political parties to extend the right to vote to citizens residing overseas
A committee of the Election Commission of India approved of proxy voting for non-resident Indians
Proxy voting means that a person can authorise someone residing in the same polling booth area to cast a vote on his behalf.
This option is currently available for the armed forces, police and government officials posted outside India
A bill was passed in the lower house of India’s parliament or the Lok Sabha to extend proxy voting to non-resident Indians
However, this did not come before the upper house or Rajya Sabha and has lapsed
The issue of NRI voting draws a huge amount of interest in India and overseas
Over the past few months, Indians have received messages on mobile phones and on social media claiming that NRIs can cast their votes online
The Election Commission of India then clarified that NRIs could not vote online
The Election Commission lodged a complaint with the Delhi Police asking it to clamp down on the people spreading misinformation
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi first visited the UAE in August 2015
His visit on August 23-24 will be the third in four years
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, visited India in February 2016
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Modi will visit Bahrain on August 24-25
Company%20Profile
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