The British Council's Creative Future programme aims to discover India's Creative Future 2007 - a young individual with the best creative idea backed by a strong business proposition.
Out of a total of 1084, 60 applicants were long-listed over the last one month. These 60 individuals vied for the 20 places available in the Creative Future School at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore between 13 and 26 August, 2006.
Over a period of three days, gruelling interviews took place in New Delhi and Chennai by a panel comprising Professor Ramnath Narayanswamy, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore; Lee Corner, Creative Industries Expert, UK; Sanmit Ahuja, Head of India Affairs Commonwealth Business Council; Anamaria Wills, Chief Executive, Creative Industries Development Agency, UK; Balasubramanian, Director – Finance and Operations, Asian Heritage Foundation; and Andrew Senior, Acting Head - Arts and Creative Industries, India.
The average age of the finalists is 28 years, with the youngest candidate aged 22 and oldest aged 35. The finalists are from a range of sectors: film, design, music, TV, publishing, fashion, photography, radio, traditional Indian art, software and one finalist has a cross-sectoral proposal.
After the 20 finalists, in a surprise announcement, panel chairperson Lee Corner made an extraordinary announcement. Praveen Chrispugg from Chennai has been selected by the Creative Industries Development Agency to be mentored in the UK for his proposal on a cutting edge technology business model.
In November 2006 three lucky finalists will visit the UK and meet with leading industry figures from within their sector. Whilst in London they will have the chance to pitch their business idea to a group of potential investors.
In January 2007, the three finalists will have a chance to reprise their London experience in Mumbai, this time pitching to potential Indian investors. At the end of this process, our panel of expert judges will also decide which one of them should be declared the overall winner - India's Creative Future 2007.
About Creative Future - India