IAA's Creative Lantern Awards on November 28

The India chapter of the International Advertising Association (IAA) is organising a special dinner on the evening of November 28 at the ITC Grand Central. The event will witness the presentation of the IAA's first Creative Lantern award at the hands of Nobel Laureate Dr. Rajendra Pachauri. The award has been created for the best campaign chosen to mobilize funds for 'The Lighting a Billion Lives' campaign being spearheaded by The Energy Resources Institute (TERI) and supported by the India Chapter of the IAA. Indra Abidin (pictured), chairman and world president of the IAA will also be attending the event.
 
Earlier in the day, a jury chaired by Dr Pachauri, along with Indra Abidin, Jaideep Bose, Prasoon Joshi,   Gautam Singhania, Shabana Azmi, Anuradha Mahindra, Pradeep Guha, Shobha De, Raj Nayak and Naina Lal Kidwai, will view five entries that had been short listed earlier, and select the winning entry.
 
The idea for this initiative came about when Dr. RK Pachauri, met IAA members on March 3 this year and made a case for the role of the common man in changing his outlook and life processes to include energy conservation in their daily lives. This meeting led to the India Chapter of the IAA and TERI looking at an ambitious communications programme that could help change the lives of about 400 million Indians who have no access to electricity.
 
The IAA, with the support of the entire communications industry in India is appealing to corporate bodies and Indian citizens to partner in this  initiative by contributing towards the cost of one or more solar lanterns.