23-year-old social entrepreneur Tannisha Avarrsekar gets conferred with the prestigious Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts, joining an exclusive global community of 30,000 innovators, entrepreneurs and change-makers that have been given this rare honour since 1754.

The Fellowship of the RSA (FRSA) is an award granted to individuals that the RSA judges to have made outstanding achievements in the field of social progress and development. Past and current fellows include leading activists, artists, writers, journalists and former politicians who have made significant contributions to their fields. Current fellows include: Tim Berners-Lee and Judi Dench, and previous fellows have included the likes of Stephen Hawking, Charles Dickens, Karl Marx and Benjamin Franklin.

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The Royal Society of the Arts is a 267-year-old organisation which was founded by William Shipley as the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce. It was granted a Royal Charter in 1847 and the right to use the term Royal in its name by King Edward VII in 1908.

Founded during the Enlightenment, the 267-year-old organization characterises itself as “an enlightenment organization committed to finding innovative practical solutions to today’s social challenges”, has been at the forefront of social change in London and around the world. The RSA’s past projects include delivering fresh drinking water to the developing world, rethinking intellectual property from first principles to produce a Charter (published as the Adelphi Charter), investigating schemes to manage international migration and exploring the feasibility of a UK-wide personal carbon trading system.

Fellows have access to the brightest new ideas, innovative projects, and a platform for social change. Renowned thinkers and doers have been invited to present their ideas on the RSA’s stage ever since the society was founded, including more recently Sir Ken Robinson, Al Gore, Sir David Attenborough, Alain de Botton, Michael Sandel, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Desmond Tutu, and David Cameron.

Tannisha Avarrsekar, AKC is the Founder & CEO of Lokatantra, a social enterprise that works towards bridging the gap between voters and political officials using technology. Under her leadership, the platform has assisted thousands of voters navigate India’s electoral process over the last two years and conducted research about solutions to social ailments such as voter suppression in India.

Avarrsekar is a well-respected consultant in the field of Political Strategy and Communications and has been conferred with numerous awards including the Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 Award by VJ MSME Awards, the Woman of Worth Award by the World Women Leadership Congress, the Young Achiever Award by IAF for outstanding contributions towards nation-building, and also been listed by Asia Times in ‘5 Social Entrepreneurs to Watch in India’.

Avarrsekar is the author of two critically acclaimed books and acts as Honorary Trustee as well as Advisor to the boards of reputed NGOs such as the Centre For Transforming India, and the Insaniyat Foundation. She is a graduate of King’s College, where she sits on the board of elected Associates (AKC). This achievement is another feather to her overcrowded cap!