Greatest minds to converge at TEDIndia conference

The annual `Technology, Entertainment, and Design' conference `TEDIndia' will bring together the world's most fascinating minds to give the talk of their lives - in 18 minutes.

The conference will bring together a diverse audience comprising- CEOs, scientists, creatives, and philanthropists, including the likes Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Frank Gehry, Sir Richard Branson, Philippe Starck, Isabel Allende and Bono.

The TEDIndia Fellows programme, a part of the larger TED Fellows Programme, is a new international fellowship programme designed to nurture great ideas and help them spread around the world.

This year, organisers will select 100 promising individuals from around the world to attend the very first TEDIndia conference. At the end of the year, organizers will select 20 individuals from a pool of the TED, TEDGlobal, and TEDIndia Fellows to participate in an extended three-year Senior Fellowship, bringing them to six consecutive conferences.

The principal goal of the programme is to empower the fellows to effectively communicate their work to the world.

Fellows will also participate in a two-day pre-conference with the opportunity to present a short talk for consideration for TED.com, elite skills-building courses taught by world experts, social opportunities and surprise extras.

The TEDIndia Fellows programme will have international representation with a distinctly South Asian majority, with approximately 75 per cent of the fellows representing the South Asian region, and 25 per cent representing other regions of the world.

South Asia is defined as including the countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet, Myanmar, the Maldives, and Sri Lanka.

For the global pool, applications will also be sought from the other five target regions: Africa, Asia/Pacific, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Middle East, with consideration to the applicants from other countries.

TED was started in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then, its scope has broadened to include science, business, the arts, and the global issues facing our world.