Bernama reported that Mogesh was presented the award by Telangana state governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan and India’s minister of state for external affairs and education Rajkumar Ranjan Singh at a summit held in Hyderabad, India.

He received the award for his achievements, leadership role and impact on society from his advocacy work and active participation throughout the summit.

A second-year PhD student in molecular biology and genetic engineering at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), he previously received the Diana Award 2021 in the United Kingdom which recognises involvement and contributions of youth in community and humanitarian work.

He was also the first Malaysian to be named as a Commonwealth Youth Award finalist in 2021.

The summit, which took place from Feb 12 to 16, saw more than 160 youth leaders from various backgrounds explore new initiatives in enhancing economic, digital and socio-cultural relations between Asean and India in order to strengthen the Asean-India comprehensive strategic partnership.

Apart from Mogesh, the Malaysian delegation at the summit comprised Hisyamuddin Basabah, R Loshenavane, G Loshseni, Clerie Olivia Fadrick and Yanitha Meena Louis.

In his presentation at the conference, Mogesh highlighted two specific challenges shared by Malaysia and India: climate change mitigation and food security.