Milind Deora
Milind Deora (born 4 December 1975) is an Indian politician. He was a Member of the 15th Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament of India, from the Mumbai South constituency. Deora is the Former Minister of State with the Ministry of Information Technology and Communications and the Former Minister of State with the Ministry of Shipping within the Government of India.
Deora was one of the youngest members of the 15th Lok Sabha. He became MP at the age of 27. He won the 2004 elections with a margin of 10,000 votes against BJP’s Jaywantiben Mehta. In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, Deora was again elected from Mumbai South Constituency, this time by a margin of 1,12,682 votes. Milind Deora was inducted in the Union Government of India as the Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology in 2011.
Deora was born in Mumbai to veteran politician Murli Deora, who was a Member of Parliament for the same constituency between 1984 and 1996, and once again in 1998 in the 12th Lok Sabha. Deora is an alumnus of Cathedral and John Connon School, Sydenham College and Boston University in the United States. He has a B.A. in Business and Political Science from Boston University.
Initiatives
Direct Mayor Direct Accountability (DMDA)
The DMDA campaign seeks to empower Mumbai’s mayor with accountability to Mumbai’s voters in order to ensure greater transparency and a more coordinated way to govern Mumbai. This is to be achieved by directly electing your Mayor. His petition to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra has received around 5,000 votes as of now.
Local Body Tax
A delegation of the trading community had met Mr. Milind Deora to forward their grievances to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He had met the CM thrice on this issue.Finally, it was announced in a meeting with traders’ representatives arranged by Mr. Milind Deora that LBT will not be enforced in Mumbai until there is a consensus between the trading community and the Maharashtra Government.
Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP)
Ever since the announcement of “in-principle” decision to disband the TAMP, Milind Deora stated that the Shipping Ministry is mulling more relaxations to bring about greater parity in pricing at all ports soon.
Google+ Hangout
Deora hosted a live Google+ Hangout about the future of IT and Communication in India on 6 June 2013. The Hangout session was moderated by TV anchor Cyrus Broacha.
Computer Education Program
Milind has been actively pursuing the cause of propagating free job-oriented computer education to economically underprivileged students through NGO Sparsh. He is committed to provide free service to over 100 needy schools in Mumbai covering over 1 lakh students under Public-Private-Partnership. Sparsh educates poor students in computer and IT proficiency and it has computerised hundreds of poor schools in Mumbai.
Free Eye Check Camp
Milind has been actively pursuing the cause of propagating free job-oriented computer education to economically underprivileged students through NGO Sparsh. He is committed to provide free service to over 100 needy schools in Mumbai covering over 1 lakh students under Public-Private-Partnership. Sparsh educates poor students in computer and IT proficiency and it has computerised hundreds of poor schools in Mumbai.
Youth Parliament
The Youth Parliament is an annual parliament visit, which exposes students from Mumbai to experience a day in the Indian Parliament in New Delhi during the winter session. Around eighty students from 20 colleges participate in the parliamentary proceedings every year. It is a concept that aims is to give an opportunity for today’s youth to actually experience a behind the scenes look at what a day in Lok-Sabha entails.
UthSpeak
In October 2013, Deora took the initiative to launch @UthSpeak, an apolitical social media handle on Twitter for the youth to voice their opinions. This platform neither reflects his personal views or party biases, it is completely neutral. The idea is to discuss burning issues affecting the country, dispassionately and objectively one issue at a time, every month. More importantly it attempts to connect the youth with India’s decision-makers as the suggestions tabled on the handle will culminate in active interactions between Uthspeak and the authorities concerned.
Soccer Talent Hunt
Milind Deora Soccer Championship, an annual football tournament for school students is organised by the Milind Deora Initiative. This initiative mainly aims to promote a relatively lesser-known sport among the under privileged part of the society.
In October 2013, Bollywood ‘Super Star’ Salman Khan with South Mumbai MP Milind Deora, Aditya Mittal, son of Laxmi Mittal commemorated the 5th South Mumbai- Milind Deora Junior Soccer Challenger, organised in association with Queens Park Rangers F.C. Over 5000 kids(4250 from Municipal Schools) from over 137 schools, including municipal and government aided ones, participated in this Challenger, which is India’s largest community football tournament.
[Source : Wikipedia]
