Australia India youth dialogue brings leaders together to discuss digital disruption
Australia India Youth Dialogue (AIYD), a youth-led dialogue between the young and emerging leaders of both countries, held in India and Australia in alternate years, will be returning to India in January 2018. The AIYD promotes leadership exchange and partnering across organisations by hosting 15 of the best and brightest young minds from each country, annually.
AIYD's Australian delegate line-up this year includes prominent personalities such as Sachin Kumar, Head of Strategy and Scheduling, Cricket Australia, Wesa Chau, Director, Cultural Intelligence, Scott Farlow, Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier in the Legislative Council, Member of the NSW Legislative Council, Matt Keogh, Federal Member for Burt, Australian Parliament and Laurie Pearcey, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (International), UNSW Sydney.
The Indian delegate list is no less illustrious with young leaders such as Amit Malviya, National Head - Information and Technology, Bharatiya Janata Party, Preethi Herman, Executive Director, Change.org Foundation India, G.S. Naveen Kumar, Special Secretary, Information Technology & Electronics, Government of Uttar Pradesh, Shaili Chopra, Founder, SheThePeople.TV and Bhakti Sharma, Panchayat Sarpanch of Barkhedi Abdulla village near Bhopal.
Entering its 7th year, AIYD 2018 will take place in Mumbai and New Delhi from 21st to 24th January where the delegates will discuss, debate and collaborate on ideas of ‘Digital Disruption’ in fields of democracy, media and workplace. The sub-themes of the dialogue include the future of democracy – governing and youth civic engagement in a digital age, the future of information –blockchain and cyber security in a digital age and the future
The AIYD alumni, which boasts of over 180 leaders from India and Australia, comprises of CEO/Founders, opposition leaders of state government, elected Parliament of Australia members, award winning journalists and news anchors. As part of this effort, two fellowships have been funded by the AIYD Alumni grants program. The first fellowship enabled young Indian to accept an internship with Pollinate Energy, an Australian NGO working in the renewable energy space in India, co-founded by AIYD 2014 alumnus Monique Alfris.
The second fellowship assisted a young Australian to participate in a teacher training program in a rural village in India with the Australian NGO, Tara.Ed., run by AIYD 212 alumnus Jennifer Star. Other initiatives lead by AIYD alumni include the Development Roadmap for Water Resources in Soda, Rajasthan, by 2014 AIYD alumni Chris O’Neill, Director of an engineering firm in Melbourne and Chhavi Rajawat, the Sarpanch of Soda village.
These are a few examples of many other collaborations formed by AIYD alumni that have had a significant impact on the Australia-India relationship. The AIYD continues to support efforts like these in order to enable a rich exchange of ideas and perspectives, thereby encouraging emerging young leaders to think about how the Australia-India relationship may be strengthened.
The AIYD is proudly supported by its distinguished partners, Tata Consultancy Services, UTS:Insearch, Macquarie University, The University of New South Wales and the Victorian Government.
