Economist Amartya Sen and actor-cum-anchor Shekhar Suman are among the nominees for the MTV Youth Icon 2004. Other personalities on the list include fashion designer Ritu Beri, music director A R Rahman, superstar Amitabh Bachchan, cricketer Rahul Dravid and industrial Ratan Tata.

The list was drawn up after IMRB, commissioned by MTV, did a survey in ten cities to understand who could be the possible candidates for the coveted award. The quantitative research had a sample size of 808 respondents, distributed equally between the two sexes, in the age group of 15-24 belonging to SEC AB. Individuals contacted were from households who had cable and satellite TV and claimed viewership of music channels for atleast 30 minutes a week.

Last year, Anil Ambani, vice-chairman and managing director, Reliance Industries, emerged the winner from among heavy weight probables such as ex-prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, environmentalist and parliamentarian Maneka Gandhi, actor Shahrukh Khan, president of the country APJ Abdul Kalam and TV star Smriti Malhotra Irani.

MTV has put together a multi-media voting mechanism to facilitate easy casting of votes. Viewers can nominate their favourite candidates online or through voter slips kept at youth hangouts or via SMS or phone. Sponsors of the event include LML Freedom, Mahindra Scorpio, Sprandi and Samsung.