Indian Design on the Move

It is well said that design though as old as the civilization is a rather recent profession. In India, design has been part of our civilizational heritage as reflected through the crafts, artifacts and performing arts across the country. Even the first Professional Training in Design said to have started in Calcutta
was mainly for Crafts. The commencement of Professional Education in Design can be traced to the defining India Report of 1958 which was initiated by
Ms Pupul Jayakar, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and Gautam and Gira Sarabhai in a rare coming together of true visionaries ahead of time. The then Industries Minister, Mr Nityanand Kanungo who had a look at the India Report
is said to have advised for a higher outlay than what was proposed! The India Report completes 50 years in 2008 and in a sense Indian Design is completing its Golden Jubilee in 2008.  The 7th CII-NID Design Summit being held in Bangalore in December 2007, thus ushers in the Golden Jubilee of India’s tryst with Professional Design and the first. Design Resource Directory being published by CII is therefore timely and celebrates the journey of Indian Design.

Owing to the prevalent protected economy, Indian Design did not receive the kind of attention and patronage as in the case of Science and Technology and Management in the country. Despite setting up of NID in early years of Post-Independent India in 1961 which was a bold step indeed, Design did not receive sufficient state patronage or industry support during most of the past 50 years. Design languished as license raj, ‘import substitution’ and Hindu rate of economic growth dominated the Indian economy. Original designs or investments in R & D had been abysmally low. Though there has been commendable contributions to revive the dying crafts and struggling handlooms through passionable design interventions by NID and other institutions like Weavers’ Service Centres and even help to SMEs from NID and IDC in Mumbai and substantial contributions in graphic and communication design through the years, Indian Design did not experience any major resurgence as it happened in the case of Japan in the Post 2nd World War period and in Korea in the mid 80s. The 1979 ICSID-UNIDO call for Development through Design at the NID Conference was the most significant step in the whole period.

The economic liberalization process which picked up momentum in the mid 90s, the popularity of easily understood Fashion and Accessory Design along with a nascent fashion wave in the country, expanding middle class through higher discretionary incomes and IT and Service Sectors creating high paid employment opportunities for the youth in the country etc and the other socio-economic changes helped Design to acquire more visibility and increasing acceptance as a tool mainly for Competitive Advantage. The WTO framework which encouraged a stronger IPR regime also helped the process. With its slow but sure entry Fashion Design began capturing the imagination of the campuses and households through fashion shows beamed across the country through the electronic media. With the success of Fashion Weeks, there has been a great wave of interest in fashion design in the country which gave rise to stars among fashion designers. However, the other breeds of designers namely, Furniture & Interior Designers, Product Designers, Animation Film Designers, Film & Video Communication Designers, Graphic Designers, Information & Interface Designers have not been recognized by the industry or the public yet.

At the turn of the century, a major transformational agenda was launched at the National Institute of Design which itself has been caught in a lacksaidical phase for a long time to make the institute contemporary through upgradation of its infrastructure, educational programmes and national and international reach. As part of such an initiative and to strengthen the relationship of design with industry and to place design sharply on the corporate agenda, the National Institute of Design and Confederation of Indian Industry collaborated for the first time in 2001 to launch the CII-NID Design Summit as a co-branded Conference. It was a very humble event, modest in proportion but succeeding right at the beginning to revive the agenda of a National Design Policy for the country and in setting a Blue Print for Indian Design in motion. In the second year, the Design Summit grew larger but it was in 2003 when held in Delhi in collaboration with International Council for Societies of Industrial Designers, (ICSID) that Design hit the front page of ‘Times of India, New Delhi’ for the first time. With the presence of a huge group of International luminaries in that
3rd edition of CII-NID Design Summit, design really started turning faster. With CII’s regional initiatives, ICOGRADA and IFI’s meetings in India and many Conferences like BIG, Design for ICT, Design Education, Crafts etc., held at NID Campus, design as such started underwent a churning process. For the first time India’s Commerce Minister himself came to the CII-NID Design Summit in 2004 at Vigyan Bhavan to announce the Intent of the Government to come out with a National Design Policy. This was music to the ears of the Design Community and many designers welcomed this as an historic moment and the speech of the Hon’ble Commerce Minister Mr Kamalnath is truly significant as it placed Design on the National agenda. With this the National Design Policy was set in motion through Stakeholders’ meetings held in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Calcutta under the aegis of DIPP-CII-NID. The Design Summit in 2005 had Special Sessions on Design Policy and for the first time there was also a session which was broadcast through CNBC. The Design and Innovation started acquiring a higher profile as the Concepts like Creative Economy, Innovation Economy etc., gained currency. Many private entrepreneurs started setting up Design Institutes though in smaller scale especially in Delhi, Pune and Mumbai. The Design Community started looking at their scope, size and scale and certain design consultancies started new proprietary services like Design Research. Some other consultancies added foreign collaborations or tie-ups. Yet other consultancies added technologies like Rapid Product Development and Visualization to their repertoire, following the foot steps of NID which has set up India’s first Design Vision Centre with state-of-art facilities like colour Rapid Product Development, 3D Scanner, Haptic devices, interactive 360° visualization etc. The 25th Convocation of NID in 2005 and His Excellency, President of India Dr A P J Abdul Kalamji delivering the most remarkable and visionary Convocation Address and also inaugurating India’s first Design Vision Centre at NID enabled design to acquire a higher level of credibility, mainstream status among educational institutions and a critical mass in general opinion which later rubbed off on design community as a whole.

It may be also recalled that to further strengthen and augment the CII-NID Design initiative in 2001, NID had also commenced India’s first Design Centre at ITPO during 2002 and had started BusinessWorld-NID Design Excellence Awards way back in 2003. NID’s association with BusinessWorld succeeded in putting a Designer’s picture on the front cover of a Business Magazine for the first time in India’s history. A landmark achievement for which design fraternity responded with more positive energy than usual. These major steps and advocacy of Indian Design, by having a place on the ICSID board in 2001-2003 and 2005-07 helped the cause of Indian Design. The value of these far reaching steps and visionary initiatives would only be realized in retrospect few years from now.

After the stakeholders meetings, I could formulate the Draft National Design Policy which went through many discussions and revisions at the Ministry. During the term of Dr Ajay Dua, Shri Anthony de Sa and Shri N N Prasad, the Design Policy took shape with considerable help from colleagues Shri Y S Rajan, Shri Anjan Das, Ms Seema Gupta in CII who helped in holding the Stakeholders’ meetings jointly with NID. These steps helped in raising the industry opinion in favour of design especially through the CII’s First Taskforce on Design, which I had the good fortune to Chair during 2005. All these efforts culminated in the National Design Policy being steered by Shri Kamalnathji in the Cabinet to be approved on 8th February 2007 which was announced formally by the Hon’ble Finance Minister. One of the immediate fall-out was Design Services coming into the service tax net. The positive fall-out was that the entire Design Community got energized and the designers held group meetings to draw up action plans for Chartered Society of Designers, India Design Council and Design Education. The Government submitted an action report based on these inputs through a committee which was set up at the Ministry under the Chairmanship of Shri N N Prasad with myself as a Member-Secretary. Formal constitution of these important bodies are in process. International interest in Design in general was visible at Davos 2006 and India became a flavour of the investing community through the brilliant “Incredible India” campaign.

Meanwhile, the Institutions have been gearing up as it has happened in the case of NID with two more campuses being set during 10th FYP and four more planned during the 11th FYP while moving to become a University as part of the New National Design Policy. The National Institute of Design and IDC Mumbai got listed among the top design schools published by Business Week, USA in 2006 and 2007. Similarly, the Design Departments of IITs have come together with a Rs.100 crores plan to upgrade the Design Centres at respective IITs. The private design institutes are also expanding rapidly.

On the professional front of Indian Design studios new models are coming to the fore with design consultancies becoming more full service models, creating regional networks for undertaking design consultancy, foreign design consultancies like IDEO and FROG setting up shop in India etc... The design-led industries led by the like of Tata Motors, Titan, Tata Elxsi, Bajaj, VIP Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra began to invest heavily in design and innovation announcing the arrival of design in the manufacturing sector. With the growth of retail and service sectors and media and entertainment industry, the demand for designers went through the roof and the “National Design Deficit” continues with the number of designers falling short of the current and projected demand.

The CII-NID Design Summit itself reflects the change as the design community plays a significant role by actively participating in the organization and planning of the summit since 2006. 2006 also saw ICSID’s coming for the second time as part of the CII-NID Design Summit in Delhi and the presence of global designers alongwith Indian designers thus setting the stage for aggressive branding and promotion of Indian abroad. NID Alumni like Shri Uday Dandavate, Shri Sudhir, Shri Jacob, Mr Neelam Chibber, Shri M P Ranjan, Shri Hari Nair have also been extending valuable help in strengthening the Design Summit from 2006 onwards. It is to the credit of CII that in 2001 when design was not on the firmament that they had agreed to co-brand and launch the Design Summit alongwith NID. Their support through a dedicated team has been stead-fast for the initiatives on Design Policy, Design Education, Design for SMEs and the fact that the first Taskforce on Design was constituted in 2005 and the National Committee on Design has been constituted in 2007 indicate that the support of the largest industry body behind design has made it possible for all of us to travel this distance. The Design Resource Directory bring brought out on the occasion of the 7th CII-NID Design Summit with Italy as the Partner Country truly signify the “tipping point” of India Design in the context of the National Design Policy. NID certainly values the relationship with CII in having achieved the progress for the benefit of Design Industry, Designers and Indian Design in general. To echo Swami Vivekananda, when I look at the long road ahead, I do realize that what has been achieved is far too little, while the acceleration and momentum now being seen make me very optimistic about Indian Design and its future. The next 50 years therefore are going to be even more exciting and productive for the designers, design-led industries and most importantly not just for competitiveness but for Quality of Life.
(These are the personal views of the author)

Dr Darlie O Koshy