'Besides, it also features famous contemporary artists, musicians and performers.' Every year, TED also awards a prize of $100,000 to three exceptional individuals.

A venture capitalist and entrepreneur, Pratury works to strengthen ties between the US and India. She has been attending TED both as a guest and as a speaker since 1994.

TED, said Pratury, started in 1984 as a conference to bring together people from the fields of technology, entertainment and design to sound off ideas, but it gradually became bigger -- spanning across genres, herding the world's greatest thinkers and doers under one roof. It is now one of the most popular sites on the Internet (www.ted.org), with more than 1,000 web videos.

'The focus of TEDIndia will be India and South Asia,' Pratury said. 'The speakers will address key issues of multidisciplinary problem solving, obstacles facing the developing nations in the subcontinent and innovations. It will also showcase the latest innovations in technology, design and entertainment from India and its neighbours at a special innovations lounge on the Infosys campus.'

The conference will begin Nov 4 with the TED University and Workshop round where at least 30 members of the select audience will be 'taught' to speak.

The next two days will be a continuous round of at least nine sessions, where the speakers will address the audience.

The sessions will be broken with music, dance and art-based performances, Pratury said.

'My objective is to get the maximum number of Indians to get clued into what's happening in the West and ensure that the best of Indian minds are around.'

The list of speakers will be released a month before the event, Pratury said.

TEDIndia will be partnered by Infosys, Sherpalo Ventures, Ramco Systems, Google and Nokia.

(Madhushree Chatterjee can be contacted at madhu.c@ians.in)