The British Council launched The Great Talk series in India on September 11, 2015, which is aimed at motivating young Indian students to plan their careers effectively by interacting with UK laureates. This platform offers students an opportunity to meet the prominent educationists and explore new career directions. The Indian students can engage with distinguished UK personalities who bring insightful, real world experiences and outlook to their academic pursuits.
The inaugural talk of this series was delivered at Saveetha University in Chennai by TED prize winner Professor Sugata Mitra on The Future of learning. Her experiments inspired the Indian Diplomat, Vikas Swarup to write his debut novel Slumdog Millionaire that went on to become the Oscar-winning film of 2009. This multi-city initiative will also be organised in New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata with other inspiring UK alumni over the next few months.
Also, Sajid Javid MP, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and Rob lynes, director, British Council India launched the Education UK Alumni Awards 2016. The platform will honour the outstanding achievements made by business professionals, entrepreneurs and community leaders across the globe who can demonstrate how their UK education has contributed to their subsequent success. The UK alumni from 10 participating countries can apply themselves or get nominated for the awards by October 31, 2015. The winners will be announced in March 2016.