TEDIndiaʹs list of speakers is an inspirational and unusual mix of people from diverse disciplines. Doctor and researcher Hans Rosling will share surprising data on international health; the founder of Aveda, Horst Rechelbacher, will talk about his new life as an ecopreneur; and mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik will talk about the surprising link between mythology and business. Theyʹll be part of a fast‐paced, highly curated three‐day stage program featuring TEDʹs famous 18‐minute talks, plus music, comedy, dance, short talks, video interludes and other surprises.
And because the theme of TEDIndia is ʺThe Future Beckons,ʺ the event will welcome many young minds with stimulating ideas. Among the new voices from India and around the world will be Ryan Lobo, photographer and documentary filmmaker; Pranav Mistry, of the MIT Media Lab, the genius behind the blockbuster SixthSense demo; and A. Balasubramaniam, the Bangalore‐based artist. Additionally, 100 TEDIndia Fellows will be announced next week.
See the full list of speakers and performers below (more speakers and special guests will be announced closer to the conference).
TEDIndia will be co‐hosted by TEDʹs curator, Chris Anderson, and longtime TED attendee Lakshmi Pratury, who has spent years building bridges between India and the West. Pratury is the CEO of Ixoraa Media, which hosts the Aamra Grove retreat.
ʺTEDIndia is an opportunity to bring even more global voices to TED, and to bring TEDʹs energy and entrepreneurship to India, it is an opportunity to play host to a group of extraordinary talents from around the world and across disciplines,ʺ Pratury says. ʺThe idea is to stimulate the five senses. The ideas that emerge at TEDIndia might translate into world-changing actions in the future. Moreover, it will also create new business and innovation networks and lifelong associations,ʺ she adds.
Talking about the idea behind bringing TED to India, Chris Anderson says, ʺAt a time of huge economic uncertainty, one thing remains clear: There has been an unmistakable shift of influence to the east. We wanted to examine the future from the vantage point of India, a country thatʹs re‐inventing itself daily and whose influence is reshaping the world.ʺ
Infosys will both host and sponsor the conference at its architecturally rich training campus in Mysore. In addition, innovative companies like Ramco Systems, Cisco, Intel, Barclays and Google, and venture capital firms
like Sherpalo Ventures and Intellectual Venture Partners, are partnering with TEDIndia to make this first‐ever conference in India a success.
ʺInfosys is happy and proud to partner with TED and host TEDIndia on our campus in Mysore. We are looking forward to an exciting and innovative event,ʺ says Kris Gopalakrishnan, CEO and Managing Director, Infosys Technologies Ltd.
Satya Bansal, Chief Executive of Barclays Wealth, India, says, ʺTED provides an ideal platform to showcase our brand values. We are happy to support the TEDIndia conference, which will see the confluence of some of the greatest minds in the country and outside.ʺ
Under the theme ʺThe Future Beckons,ʺ some of the issues TEDIndia will address are:
‐‐ Who are the young thinkers and doers capable of shaping the future?
‐‐ What local innovations are destined for global impact?
‐‐ Can there be economic advancement without environmental destruction?
‐‐ Can a pluralistic democracy survive in the face of rising fundamentalism?
‐‐ Do we have enough water for everyone?
‐‐ How do we keep our youth challenged and our aged healthy?
The full list of speakers and performers announced today (more speakers will be added closer to the conference):
Speakers:
Anand Mahindra, managing director, Mahindra and Mahindra
Anil Gupta, from IIM Ahmedabad, the founder of the Honeybee Network
Anupam Mishra, expert on water harvesting
A. Balasubramaniam, artist
Banny Banerjee, architect
C.K. Prahalad, management and innovation guru
Charles Anderson, marine biologist
Devdutt Pattanaik, mythologist
Erin McKean, editor of the new online dictionary Wordnik
Eve Ensler, playwright and activist
Hans Rosling, medical researcher and data wizard
Harsha Bogle, cricket commentator
Horst Rechelbacher, founder of Aveda and Intelligent Nutrients
Jib Ellison, sustainability expert
Kamal Haasan, film actor and director
Kavita Ramdas, president and CEO of Global Fund for Women
Mallika Sarabhai, social entrepreneur and performer
Matthew Spacie, founder, Magic Bus
Pawan Sinha, MIT vision researcher and head of Project Prakash
Pranav Mistry, MIT grad student and inventor of SixthSense
R.A. Mashelkar, business and innovation guru
Robert Thurman, Buddhist scholar
Romulus Whitaker, herpetologist
Ryan Lobo, photographer and documentary filmmaker
Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev, yogi and founder of Isha Foundation
Sashwati Banerjee of ʺSesame Streetʺ
Sendhil Mullainathan, economist
Shamsul Wares, architect
Shashi Tharoor, Indiaʹs Minister of State for External Affairs
Shekhar Kapur, film director and producer
Shukla Bose, founder, Parikrama Humanity Foundation
Sunitha Krishnan, activist against human trafficking
Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos.com
Performers:
Ananda Shankar Jayant, dancer
Anil Srinivasan and Sikkil GuruCharan, classical musicians
Dan Nainan, comedian
Mukul Deora, rapper and producer
Sidi Goma, African Sufi dance troupe
Usha Uthup, legendary singer
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four‐day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world‐changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the worldʹs leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo‐Iweala, Isabel Allende and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The annual TED Conference takes place in Long Beach, California; TEDGlobal is held each year in Oxford, UK, and this November, the TEDIndia Conference will be held in Mysore, India. TEDʹs media initiatives include TED.com, where new TEDTalks are posted daily, and the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as the ability for any TEDTalk to be translated by volunteers worldwide. TED has established the annual TED Prize, where three exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world are given the opportunity to put their wishes into action, and TEDx , which offers individuals or groups a way to host local, self‐organized events around the world.
TEDIndia, ʺThe Future Beckons,ʺ will be held in Nov. 4‐7, 2009, in Mysore, India. TED2010, ʺWhat the World Needs Now,ʺ will be held Feb. 9‐13, 2010, in Long Beach, California, with TEDActive, a simulcast conference of TED2010, in Palm Springs, California. TEDGlobal 2010, ʺAnd Now the Good News,ʺ will be held July 13‐16, 2010, in Oxford, UK.
About TEDIndia
TEDIndia will be held November 4‐7, 2009, just outside Mysore, on the high‐tech campus built by Infosys to train its thousands of engineering graduates. TEDIndia offers a fast‐paced, highly curated three‐day stage program featuring TEDʹs famous 18‐minute talks, plus music, comedy, dance, short talks, video interludes, and other surprises. Preconference, thereʹs a full day of TED University, during which TEDIndia attendees can give their own short talks or performances. TEDIndia will host a class of 100 exceptional TED Fellows from around the world ‐‐ young thinkers and doers in all fields who can become tomorrowʹs leaders. Sponsors of TEDIndia include Infosys, Google.org, Nokia and Sherpalo Ventures.