Throughout the four days the participants heard from speakers who ranged from young entrepreneurs starting out in business to established entrepreneurs sharing their learning on social media, enterprise and scale. We also had three 15-year old students joining us to give the group a youth perspective. Visits out in Abu Dhabi were to a range of organisations working in diverse areas of youth engagement, youth unemployment, entrepreneurship, ICT and social media.

The group came up with six fascinating models for solving the challenge. The next steps will be for the participants to refine, develop and then present their ideas to policy makers and leaders in the different cities.

Common Purpose Ventures connect future leaders, across the world, to tackle challenges which are common and compelling, and big (enough to be worth the effort) and small (enough to be grasped).

Some of the comments from participants:

"Itijah has not just met my expectations, it has gone way beyond them".

"An eye opener, a life changing experience, a push to start my own life journey, a chance to break your stereotypes".

"Itijah is an exceptional experience towards better future and youth in both Europe and the Arab World"

"You must attend this event"

If you'd like to know more about the Itijah Venture or are interested in getting involved please contact Itijah@commonpurpose.org or visit the website.

Unique carbon cutting measures are happening locally in both India and the UK, but can those actions be accelerated and multiplied to reduce carbon emissions by 50% in the next five years?

This is the challenge that participants on the Dishaa Venture, run by leadership development organisation Common Purpose, will be tackling this week. Dishaa aims to expand, enrich and energise relations between India and the UK by investing in the development of the next generation of leaders from the two countries.

Many of the participants are from member organisations of the India UK CEO Forum [2], their presence showing how crucial tackling this challenge will be for stimulating global economic growth. Member organisations participating in Dishaa include:

• ITC Limited
• Hindustan Unilever
• Bharti Enterprises
• Standard Chartered
• 3i
• BAE Systems
• JCB
• Vodafone Group Plc

These business sector participants will be working with those from the public sector and NGOs to foster discussion and build shared approaches to this challenge. The diverse group of participants, 20 from the UK and 20 from India, are skilled and respected practitioners in their fields and looking to effect change both in their organisations and wider society.

During the Venture, held in London from 29 November to 3 December, they will meet with carbon experts including:

• Lord Nick Stern, Chair, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics (also a member of the Dishaa Advisory Group and UK-India roundtable)
• Ian Short, Chief Executive, Institute for Sustainability
• Nafees Meah, Head of Science, Climate, Energy, Science and Analysis, Department of Energy and Climate Change.

They will undertake research tasks beforehand, develop their thinking and work together to come up with innovative approaches to the challenge. They will then present their findings and models to a cross sector group of policy experts from the UK and India, potentially leading to future policy change that could help tackle what Lord Stern calls "one of the defining problems of the 21st century."

The Dishaa Venture is run in partnership with the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office and sponsored by United Business Media (UBM), Tilda, Cisco, Fly Kingfisher and PwC. British Prime Minister David Cameron is patron of Dishaa and launched the Venture in July 2010.

Deepak Kapoor, Chairman, PwC India explains why his organisation is proud to sponsor the Dishaa Venture: "What the world needs today is a compelling vision to drive and deliver change. It's a matter of pride for PwC India to be associated with the Dishaa Venture, which is doing this by bringing together diverse groups of young leaders from the UK and India to collaborate and work for a better tomorrow."

Founder and Chief Executive of Common Purpose Julia Middleton said: "The links between the UK and India are long standing but more importantly, they are deep, edgy, thoughtful and multi-dimensional. By learning together the participants will be able to enrich the connections between both countries and produce some very exciting ideas."

[1] The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/stern_review_report.htm

[2] Established by Indian Prime Ministers David Cameron and Manmohan Singh to strengthen economic ties http://ukindiaceoforum.com

There is a growing level of mutual investment between the two nations, but increased communication and collaboration between leaders from both countries is needed to support this.

This is why leadership development organisation Common Purpose's Dishaa Venture aims to expand, enrich and energise relations between India and the UK by investing in the development of the next generation of leaders from the two countries.

Common Purpose Ventures bring together diverse groups of leaders to foster discussion and build shared approaches to 21st century political, economic and social challenges.

Participants in this, the second Dishaa Venture, are skilled and respected practitioners in their fields and looking to effect change both in their organisations and wider society. The diverse group, 20 from the UK and 20 from India, will come together in London from 29 November to 3 December to develop their leadership skills by meeting, interviewing and debating with a range of leaders, all operating in very different contexts. Bringing this group together will expand the existing partnerships, friendships and dialogues that are already taking place between leaders in India and the UK.

Founder and Chief Executive of Common Purpose Julia Middleton said: "The links between the UK and India are long standing but more importantly, they are deep, edgy, thoughtful and multi-dimensional. By learning together the participants will be able to enrich the connections between both countries and produce some very exciting ideas."

"Dishaa showed me that by working together with a diverse group of people from both the UK and India, there is so much we can do and so many changes we can make in the world for the better" said Vandana Saxena Poria, CEO of Get Through Guides Pvt. Ltd and a graduate of the first Dishaa Venture held in Pune, India in February 2011.

The Dishaa Venture is run in partnership with the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office and sponsored by United Business Media (UBM), Tilda, Cisco, Fly Kingfisher and PwC. British Prime Minister David Cameron is patron of Dishaa and launched the Venture in July 2010.

Jennifer Duvalier, Group People & Culture Director, UBM explains why her organisation sponsors the Dishaa Venture: "UBM is a keen supporter of Dishaa, believing that individuals learn most powerfully when they have the opportunity to engage with impactful development experiences and to share their learning journey with a diverse network of fellow learners."

[1] A transcript of a speech given by the Prime Minister in Bangalore, India, on 28 July 2010 http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/pms-speech-in-india/

[2] British High Commission New Delhi http://ukinindia.fco.gov.uk/en/about-us/working-with-india/india-uk-relations/

The third Dishaa Venture will take place in Bangalore, India in November 2012.

Six new Ventures are planned for 2012. They include:

Dao Xiang (London-Shanghai) May 2012, London
Itijah (European Cities-Arab Cities) 23 - 26 April 2012, Abu Dhabi
Yon (UK-Turkey) Summer 2012, tbc
Dou Heung (Scotland-Hong Kong) Summer 2012, tbc
Phambili (UK-South Africa) Summer 2012, tbc
Kompas (Hungary-Czech Republic-Slovakia-Poland-Romania) Summer 2012, tbc

For more information about Dishaa or any of our other Ventures, contact Senior Course Director Amy Ritman.

In it the participants, 20 from the UK and 20 from India, set out their findings, models and recommendations for tackling the challenge of lowering the costs of heart surgery to just $1,000. The group gathered in Pune, India in February 2011 and have been working on their models since.

Read the final report from the first Dishaa Venture, "Heart Surgery at $1,000":

Visit the Dishaa web pages for further information.

"Unique carbon cutting measures are happening locally in India and the UK. How do we accelerate and multiply our actions to reduce carbon emissions by 50% in the next five years?"

On each Common Purpose Venture participants will be presented with a challenge to explore. They will investigate the challenge locally, and work together to come up with ideas and recommendations. Each year a different challenge will be selected for that year's participants to investigate.

The Challenge will be set by the Advisory Group in advance of the event and must be:

• A compelling issue for leaders that is common to both locations.
• Significant and wide-reaching in its impact but contained in its focus to ensure the participant group can explore and present feasible and meaningful solutions.

During the four day event, participants will investigate the challenge locally, and work together to come up with ideas and recommendations. Each year another challenge will be selected for that year's participants to investigate.

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A participant on our workshop in Teesside was interviewed, and this was broadcast on BBC Breakfast - you can watch the video on the BBC website. Our campaign also features on the news at 1pm, 6pm and 10pm.

BBC Chief Economics Correspondent Hugh Pym also visited our workshop in Teesside - you can read his subsequent article on the BBC website.

There are many initiatives that exist to help young unemployed people find work, but few that offer them the develepment opportunities they would have received were they in work. We are delighted that this important issue, and our campaign to help it, has received the coverage it deserves.

We all have a unique way we look at the world, but does our viewpoint restrict our belief in our ability to make a difference?

Common Purpose encourages people to take responsibility for leading change in their organisation or in the wider society, but the first step is to make a personal change by challenging the way you look at the world.

The 360 Day is an invitation on 10 October each year to anyone, anywhere, to do just that - an action, big or small, that challenges the way they see the world. We encourage people to visit our website www.commonpurpose360.org to find inspiration and inspire others by recording the action they plan to take on 10 October.

Get involved today!

Partner and former Global Chair of international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is new Chair of the Board.

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