Nara Lokesh

Nara Lokesh (born 23 January 1983) is an Indian politician. He is the son of former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu and Nara Bhuvaneshwari, and grandson of N. T. Rama Rao.

Lokesh became cabinet minister for information technology, Panchayati Raj and rural development in Andhra Pradesh state in 2017.

Lokesh joined the TDP in May 2013, and worked on the election strategy for the 2014 General Elections. He sought election as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the Mangalagiri constituency in the 2019 Andhra Pradesh assembly elections and lost to Alla Ramakrishna Reddy of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) by a less margin. However, he is still a member of Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council.

Early life and education

Lokesh has an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and Bachelor of Science with a specialization in Management Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon University.

Political career

Though he never won a direct election, Lokesh held several key positions in both party and state of Andhra Pradesh.

In 2014, Lokesh became TDP's General Secretary, a member of the Politburo, the highest decision-making body of the party. He managed the party, interacted with party workers and citizens, and helped set the party policies and strategy. He claimed in January 2013 that Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party derived the Direct Benefit Transfer System from a TDP proposal submitted to the central government.

Lokesh is credited with successfully managing the TDP party's membership drive that added five million members. The digital technology used by the onboarding team – tablets, live data feeds and a real-time dashboard – was probably the first such use for enrolling and managing party members in the country. In 2017, Chandrababu Naidu inducted Lokesh as an MLC and a month later he was appointed the Cabinet minister for IT, Panchayathi Raj and Rural Development.

Development and welfare models

Lokesh has been one of the Trustees of NTR Memorial Trust (popularly known as NTR Trust) on Healthcare, Education, Skills Enhancement and Disaster Management.

Lokesh oversees the disaster response program of the Trust that operates in times of natural calamities.

Each active member of the party will get a personal insurance cover of ₹2 lakh in case of a fatal accident, ₹2 lakh for permanent disability, ₹1 lakh for the partially disabled, and ₹50,000 in case of accidental injuries.

Lokesh-led party online membership drive fetched TDP 53+ lakh members.

2019 Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections

Lokesh unsuccessfully contested from Mangalagiri constituency and lost to Alla Rama Krishna Reddy of YSRCP.

Governmental offices

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Awards and recognition

Lokesh won the "Skoch Person of the Year" award in 2018, for his innovative use of technology while resolving issues related to drinking water supply, transparency in governance, and other activities under his Panchayati Raj portfolio.

In May 2018, he won the Business World magazine "Digital Leader of the Year" at the Businessworld Digital India summit in New Delhi. The award recognises the best utilisation of technology in governance. The same year, the Kalam Centre for Livable Planet Earth and Sustainable Development recognised Lokesh's efforts in the successful integration of technology in rural governance and awarded the innovation award to Andhra Pradesh in the Panchayat Raj and Rural Development category. He was also awarded the Kalam Innovation in Governance Award in 2018.

In September 2018, Lokesh was invited to represent India at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Entrepreneurship Summit and Annual Meeting of World Champions in Tianjin, China. In the following month, he became the only Indian politician to be nominated to the WEF's Network of Global Future Councils (NGFC), an interdisciplinary knowledge group that deliberates on agile governance in terms of emerging technologies and business models.

Personal life

In 2007, Lokesh married Brahmani, his first cousin on maternal side and daughter of actor and politician Nandamuri Balakrishna. The couple has a son, Devansh.

References

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External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lokesh, Nara
1983 births
Living people
Members of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council
Telugu Desam Party politicians
Stanford University alumni
Carnegie Mellon University alumni
Telugu politicians
Andhra Pradesh politicians