Working Royal: Mahanaaryaman Scindia

The first in a series on India's modern royals, GQ meets Mahanaaryaman Scindia. The son of Gwalior royals Jyotiraditya and Priyadarshini Raje Scindia, he's a tech entrepreneur intent on carving an identity that goes beyond his powerful last name.

- PRASAD RAMAMURTHY

AT 28, MAHANAARYAMAN SCINDIA, son of union minister and the titular Maharaja of Gwalior Jyotiraditya Scindia, seems more worldly-wise than his age suggests. Sitting in an opulently decorated room at his Gwalior residence-it had an SUV-sized silver carriage at its centre - he waxes eloquent on farm subsidies for fertilizers and seeds; mining datasets and machine learning; the pleasures of organic farming and the intricacies of preparing Japanese meals. You could pin it on the diverse experience he's had: his early days at the Doon School, studying economics and political science at Yale, interning at the Finance Ministry under the late Arun Jaitley, and learning how to research and catalogue art at Christie's. He's also worked as an associate at the Boston Consulting Group in Mumbai and spent time understanding the intricacies of Gross National Happiness in Bhutan. You could also tag it to the exposure he's had through his upbringing as a member of a prominent Indian political dynasty. His late great-grandmother Vijaya Raje Scindia was a leading light of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh and Bharatiya Janata Party. His late grandfather Madhavrao Scindia was a nine-term member of parliament and a union minister. His grandaunts Vasundhara Raje and Yashodhara Raje, and, of course, his father are political leaders with significant clout. Vasundhara Raje has even served two terms as chief minister of Rajasthan.