STEEL GOES INDIGENOUS THE INDIAN GREEN INNOVATION DESIGNYATRA News and views NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DESIGN VOL.XXVI SEPT & DEC 2007 Rs. 50.00 VOL.XXVI SEPT & DEC 2007 CONTENTS 01 FIRST WORD: INDIAN DESIGN ON THE MOVE By: Dr Darlie O Koshy 04 NEWS: inSidE OUT Indian Design on the Move 47TH FOUndaTION daY + FiaT AWARD + CHITRAKATHA ‘07 + ICSid + nid FILMS 10 NEWS: OUTSidE in CORPORATISinG FASHION + ROBOTS & IPODS + PRinTER HAZARDS + STEEL GOES GREEN + COMPUTER COFFEE TABLE + diaBETES + nanOTECHNOLOGY + It is well said that design though as old as the civilization is a rather recent pro- GARMENT THAT TREATS fession. In India, design has been part of our civilizational heritage as reflected through the crafts, artifacts and performing arts across the country. 13 YOU OPINE dESIGN inTERVENTION FOR DVT By: Dr Subir Das ven the first Professional Training in Design said to have started in Kolkata was mainly for Crafts. The commencement of Professional Education in Design can 18 COVER STORY be traced to the defining India Report of 1958 which was initiated by Ms Pupul THE WORLD CHALLENGE FOR DESIGNERS Jayakar, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and Gautam and Gira Sarabhai in a rare coming By: Helmut Langer E together of true visionaries ahead of time. The then Industries Minister who had a look at the India Report is said to have advised for a higher outlay than what was proposed! The 24 DESIGN VIEWS India Report completes 50 years in 2008 and in a sense Indian Design is completing its dESIGN: A CELEBRATION OF LIFE Golden Jubilee in 2008. By: Shimul Mehta Vyas 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 30 EXPLORinG indiGENOUS innOVATIONS the country. Despite setting up of NID in early years of Post-Independent India in 1961 By: Shashank Mehta & Ravi Mokashi Punekar 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 substitu- 36 DESIGninG THE PAST tion’ and Hindu rate of economic growth dominated the Indian economy. Original designs By: Bernard Hoffret or investments in R & D had been abysmally low. Though there has been commendable contributions to revive the dying crafts and struggling handlooms through passionate design 41 idENTITY WITH diGniTY BY DESIGN interventions by NID and other institutions like Weavers’ Service Centres and even help to By: Hasmukh Shah SMEs from NID and IDC in Mumbai and substantial contributions in graphic and com- munication design through the years, Indian Design did not experience any major resur- 44 THE indian DESIGNYATRA gence as it happened in the case of Japan in the Post Second World War period and in Korea By: David Kester 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. 45 CULTURAL REVOLUTION in DESIGN By: Andrea Pininfarina 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 46 CONCLUdiNGLY wave in the country, expanding middle class through higher discretionary incomes and ORGaniZED RETaiL: A TALE RETOLD IT and Service Sectors creating high paid employment opportunities for the youth in the By: Mihir Bholey vol xxvi sept & dec 2007 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 frame- STEEL GOES INDIGENOUS THE INDIAN work which encouraged a stronger IPR regime also helped the process. With its slow but GREEN INNOVATION DESIGNYATRA sure entry Fashion Design began capturing the imagination of the campuses and households News and views NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DESIGN VOL.XXVI SEPT & DEC 2007 through fashion shows beamed across the country through the electronic media. With the Rs. 50.00 EDITORIAL COMMITTEE DESIGN & PRODUCTION TEAM PUBLIShED By: success of Fashion Weeks, there has been a great wave of interest in fashion design in the Dr Darlie O Koshy | managing editor Tarun Deep Girdher | designer National Institue of Design country which gave rise to stars among fashion designers. However, the other breeds of de- Mihir Bholey | chief editor Dr Tridha Gajjar | designer Paldi, Ahmedabad 380 007, India signers namely, Furniture & Interior Designers, Product Designers, Animation Film Design- Shilpa Das | member Dev Kabir Malik | consulting designer Phone: (079) 2662 3692 ers, Film & Video Communication Designers, Graphic Designers, Information & Interface Dr Vinod Vidwans | member Dr Deepak J Mathew | photo editor Fax: (079) 2662 1167 Designers have not been recognized by the industry or the public yet. Dr Bibhudutta Baral | member (pg campus) Shirish Shah | production E-mail: [email protected] Dr S Ghosal | member (r&d campus) Bharat Suthar | digital imaging www.nid.edu Dipak Patel | layout design At the turn of the cen- which design fraternity responded with more positive energy than usual. These major steps tury, a major transformational and advocacy of Indian Design, by having a place on the ICSID board in 2001-2003 and agenda was launched at the 2005-07 helped the cause of Indian Design. The value of these far reaching steps and vision- National Institute of Design ary initiatives would only be realized in retrospect few years from now. which itself has been caught After the stakeholders meetings initiated by DIPP-CII-NID, I could formulate the Draft in a lacksaidical phase for a National Design Policy which went through many discussions and revisions at the Ministry. long time to make the institute contemporary through upgradation of its infrastructure, These steps helped in raising the industry opinion in favour of design especially through the educational programmes and national and international reach. As part of such an initia- CII’s First Taskforce on Design, which I had the good fortune to Chair during 2005. All tive and to strengthen the relationship of design with industry and to place design sharply these efforts culminated in the National Design Policy being steered by Shri Kamalnathji in on the corporate agenda, the National Institute of Design and Confederation of Indian the Cabinet to be approved on 8th February 2007. As a result, the entire Design Community Industry collaborated for the first time in 2001 to launch the CII-NID Design Summit as got energized and the designers held group meetings to draw up action plans for Chartered a co-branded Conference. It was a very humble event, modest in proportion but succeeding Society of Designers, India Design Council and Design Education. International interest in right at the beginning to revive the agenda of a National Design Policy for the country and Design in general was visible at Davos in 2006 and 2007 and India became a flavour of the in setting a Blue Print for Indian Design in motion. In the second year, the Design Sum- investing community through the brilliant “Incredible India” campaign. mit grew larger but it was in 2003 when held in Delhi in collaboration with International Meanwhile, the Institutions have been gearing up as it has happened in the case of NID Council for Societies of Industrial Designers, (ICSID) that Design hit the front page of with two more campuses being set up during 10th FYP and more campuses planned during ‘Times of India, New Delhi’ for the first time. With the presence of a huge group of Inter- the 11th FYP while moving to become a University as part of the New National Design Policy. national luminaries in that 3rd edition of CII-NID Design Summit, design really started turning faster. With ICOGRADA and IFI’s meetings in India and many Conferences like The National Institute of Design has been listed among the top 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 design schools in the survey published by Business Week, USA 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 consecutively in 2006 and 2007 +++ 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 The Design Departments at IITs have come together with a Rs.100 crores plan to Design on the National agenda. With this the National Design Policy was set in motion upgrade the Design Centres in the respective IITs. The private design institutes are also through Stakeholders’ meetings held in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Colcutta under the expanding rapidly especially in Pune, Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. aegis of DIPP-CII-NID. The Design Summit in 2005 had Special Sessions on Design On the professional front of Indian Design studios new models are coming to the fore with Policy and for the first time there was also a session which was broadcast through CNBC. design consultancies becoming more full service models, creating regional networks for under- The Design and Innovation started acquiring a higher profile as the Concepts like Creative taking design consultancy, foreign design consultancies like IDEO and FROG setting up shop Economy, Innovation Economy etc., gained currency. Many private entrepreneurs started in India etc... The design-led industries led by the like of Tata Motors, Titan, Tata Elxsi, Bajaj, setting up Design Institutes though in smaller scale especially in Delhi, Pune and Mumbai.