About Us

Key Persons Behind AAMRAS

ABHAY MOKASHI , Director​

He is a professional journalist since 1980 and has worked with leading newspapers like Free Press Journal, Indian Express, Indian Post, Mid-day and Amrita Bazar Patrika, among others.

He was the Political Editor of Mid-day and the Mumbai Bureau Chief of the historic newspaper Amrita Bazar Patrika. He headed the Pune edition of Mid-Day.

Abhay Mokashi has anchored television shows on Doordarshan 1978 and has anchored shows on several other channels in the country, though primarily he has always been a print journalist, with experience of radio too.

Major Contributions in the profession​

  1. He exposed starvation deaths in Kutch, Gujarat and his expose let to creation of 3.5 lakh jobs by the government, in the remote parts of Kutch, plus it gave the people social justice. The Gujarat High Court, the Gujarat Legislative Assembly as well as the Commission of Inquiry, appointed to probe the situation that led to starvation of the people, lauded his work as a journalist. The then Chief Minister of Gujarat would have had to resign for trying to conceal information on the starvations, but was rescued by the Opposition.
  2. His exposure of the manipulation of marks at the MD (Gynaecology and Obstetrics) examination involving the daughter of then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Shivajirao Patil-Nilangekar, led to the resignations of the Chief Minister, the Governor of Maharashtra, the Vice-Chancellor and the Pro-vice-chancellor of Mumbai University.
  3.  He exposed flaws in the medical faculty examination of Mumbai University, which led to the reversal of results of over 76 doctors at the post-graduate level, who had been erroneously declared unsuccessful due to the confusion amongst the examiners over the new system
  4. He exposed medical negligence like operation on the wrong patient, medical errors during surgeries, non-functioning of equipement and the like in public hospitals. It was due to his expose that the Mumbai High Court ordered the installation of power generators in public hospitals in Mumbai.
  5. His exposes of safety violations by civil airlines in the country, went unheeded and led to over 11 fatal air crashes in the country in a short span of time, including two on a single day—October 19, 1989—one at Ahmedabad and 45 minutes another in Assam.
  6. For over a decade he chased sources to expose the theft and sale of human kidneys, which finally led to the exposure of the racket in Mumbai. Two of his colleagues, were with him in exposing Dr Santosh Kumar Raut and other doctors.

He has written editorials, political analysis and has written extensively on current events and socio-economic issues; he has interviewed national and international leaders, including Prime Ministers of India and heads of States and Heads of Governments of other countries.

He has appeared on several national and international television and radio channels.

He has done live political analysis on radio and television during elections.

Media Training

Abhay Mokashi is a known media trainer for over three decades and many of his students are successful mediapersons, social activists and corporate communicators.

He also conducts media and soft skills training for corporate bodies.

As a Guest Editor of a book to mark 50 Years of Parliamentary Democracy in India, he planned the book and got the top politicians in the country to write for it.

He has been a photographer and held two one-man shows to depict the problems of women and children.

VINAY SHARMA, Joint Director

Vinay Sharma is a qualified Development Communicator, having done a post-graduate diploma in Communication for Development.

Vinay SharmaHe worked as a journalist in Mumbai having extensively covered various beats, especially the political beat. While covering the political beat, he also laid emphasis on developmental news, covering rallies and protests by various sections of the society, especially the underprivileged, seeking justice.

During his graduation in Political Science with Honours, from Delhi University, he was an active member of the Theatre Society. Concerned about the burning issues in the society and the problems faced by the residents of Jammu and Kashmir, he took the initiative to take these issues to the masses, through street theatre. He coordinated the plays and also directed a street play on the Kashmir issue. His theatre performances have crossed a century.

Vinay Sharma is partner of Muzzled Voices, a platform to give voice to the voiceless in the society. The organisation also runs a website by the same name and he is actively part of it.

On the social media, he highlights problems of the underprivileged, especially the Dalit and has a great following.

Given his keen interest in academics, he has taken a break from journalism and communication for development and is now in the final semester of Masters in Law, Politics and Society (LPS), a programme conducted by the prestigious Ambedkar University, Delhi.