Rinesh Sharma | |
|---|---|
 Sharma in 2023 | |
| Member of the Fijian Parliament for FijiFirst List | |
| Assumed office 14 December 2022 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 22 April 1993 Lautoka, Fiji |
| Political party | FijiFirst |
Rinesh Rajesh Sharma (born 22 April 1993) is a Fijian entrepreneur, politician and member of the Parliament of Fiji. [1] He is a member of the FijiFirst party.
In 2018, Sharma graduated from Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering and Technology in India with a Bachelor of Computer Science and Engineering degree. He is originally from Lautoka. [2] He then founded Smarts Fiji which specialises in hydroponics farming. [3] That same year, he was able to secure a government-backed grant to begin automated hydroponics farms on a commercial scale in Fiji. [4]
In February 2020, Sharma was nominated for the 2020 Commonwealth Youth Awards. That same year, he received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to combat the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Fiji. [5]
Sharma was one of the candidates announced by FijiFirst for the 2022 Fijian general election. [6] He was elected to the Parliament of Fiji with 1,705 votes. [7] At 29, he is the youngest to be serving as a member of parliament. [8] [9]
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Fiji has experienced many coups recently, in 1987, 2000, and 2006. Fiji has been suspended various times from the Commonwealth of Nations, a grouping of mostly former British colonies. It was readmitted to the Commonwealth in December 2001, following the parliamentary election held to restore democracy in September that year, and has been suspended again because of the 2006 coup, but has been readmitted a second time after the 2014 election. Other Pacific Island governments have generally been sympathetic to Fiji's internal political problems and have declined to take public positions.
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