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National policy initiatives for design and its status in the

new millennium.

by
Prof. M P Ranjan
Faculty of Industrial Design
National Institute of Design
Paldi, Ahmedabad 380 007 INDIA
3 September 2000

Originally prepared as a background paper for the Executive Director’s meeting with the
Thiru Murasoli Maran, Honorable Minister of Industries, Government of India in July
2000 this paper is further modified for the benefit of the student of the design concepts
and concerns course. This version is offered to give them an overview of design in
India and to take their own research forward from this pointer to discover new areas of
influence and growth that design is likely to see in the years ahead.

The views expressed here are those of the author and does not represent the official
views of the Institute in any way.

Background
The National Institute of Design has been active and playing a vital role in the design
arena of India since its inception in 1961 by the Government of India. NID’s mandate is
to promote the use of design towards enhancing the quality of life in general and the
quality of Indian made products and services in particular, by appropriate design
strategies and interventions. The NID way includes a predominant concern for the user
along with the economical and functional considerations of all such products and
services. NID is now approaching a historic landmark of completing 40 years of service
to the nation and it is a great opportunity to give a thrust to the design promotion and
the use of design in all sectors of our economy.

NID has been serving the needs of industry and other sectors of the Indian economy for
the last four decades in diverse areas through its education, consultancy, advanced

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training and research programmes. Now in the changed scenario of rapid technological
advancement and globalization with new and emerging needs that confront the nation
each and every day, NID would like to relook into and redefine its collaborative efforts
with industries, institutions and organizations through more specific and planned
programmes and focus on activities of a mutually beneficial nature. We are in the
process of examining all possibilities and ideas for networking and reaching out our
skills and knowledge resources in order to fulfill our mandate. The Ministry of Industries
has a special role to play in helping NID build sustained linkages and collaborations in a
variety of areas relating to the use of design.

Status of Design
The emerging era of intense competition in a globalized economy calls for new
measures and policy initiatives from the Government of India to help and strengthen the
ability our industrial sectors to face this competition and to prosper. That India has
enormous intellectual resources in the form of trained manpower is now well known
around the world and our software sector shows promise of major breakthroughs in the
world arena. Recent studies have shown that during the rapid development of the
Industrial era from the early 1900’s upto 1970’s the manufacturing sectors provided
much of the value addition by adopting better technology and innovations in
manufacturing and management. This has however reached a threshold where all
manufacturing industries have attained the same quality and cost input standards and
these no longer provide any differentiation in the competitive landscape of the global
economy. In recent years the focus has therefore shifted to the marketplace and in
particular to value addition strategies in the retail sector. However it is now expected
that the next decade will herald the era of value addition through design as the only
meaningful factor that provides leadership through product and service differentiation.

NID’s Graduates and Alumni have been playing a pioneering role in helping to establish
the design profession in India across a very large number of disciplines. The NID
Faculty through the numerous design and research projects and research studies have
set very high standards and benchmarks for the performance of the design industry in
India and the graduates too have gone from strength to strength in following the lead
and have established a sound reputation for the Institute through their own good work.

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That NID is a leader in design education in the world is a well established fact but little
has been published of the great number of achievements of the faculty and alumni of
this Institute leaving an information vacuum in the country for design related reportage.
While fashion has been widely publicised across the national media with a measure of
hype thrown in to this promotion no such visibility has been made possible for design.
This has primarily been due to the reluctance of the NID’s management to make
publications and media promotions a major tool for communication of the results of both
NID’s education and practise.

Role of Design
Design offers industry and government a means to explore and assess a range of
options through the creative reinterpretation of problems and opportunities in the light of
systematically examined alternate scenarios that is based on focused design research
and concrete design visualisations. The design methodology provides a means of risk
reduction in dealing with the uncertain future and in moving forward in the process of
development in an organised and systematic manner where creative alternatives are
examined by potential users in numerous iterations that the design passes through
before it is implemented in the field or marketplace. The risk reduction role of design is
not fully understood since some of the processes depend on the synthesis of many
complex variables that cannot be modeled and evaluated by traditional marketing tools.
However there is ample evidence that design does indeed play this role by the process
of mapping several alternate futures and in the decision making process that use the
real users as members of this process in an integral manner. This kind of design has
now acquired a label of user centered design and at the macro level as sustainable
design or eco-friendly design. Such design processes that take into account the role of
users in making a product a success or those that consider the long term implications of
products and services through advanced user tests at an early stage of the design
process helps make the resultant product or service both durable and risk resistant.

Design works at many levels from tactical to the strategic levels of interventions. Many
Indian companies have employed design at the strategic level and very few have
mobilised the concepts at the strategic level of operation. Those who have used design
at the level of corporate policy have got tremendous mileage out of such a positioning of

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design through the substantially improved quality and fit of there products and services
to the needs and aspirations of their user groups. This high performance fit between the
service provider and the user builds brand loyalty and high levels of user acceptance
that bring enhanced value perception to the product or service that is offered by the
design led company. This offsets both risk and offers the maker and the user almost as
partners in a long term relationship and both benefit from this relationship. Design helps
leverage the investments made in science and technology and to supplement the
management capabilities of the company in very many ways. While good quality is now
seen everywhere as the direct outcome of good management and the use of good
technology and good practices in industry, design brings something more to the current
equation and this additional value is in many cases the only differentiate between
closely competing offerings in the marketplace. Therefore a large number of companies
across the globe are using design to give them the value advantage that they are
looking for.

Design Policy: National and Local


Policy making in India too has followed the general trend that is seen worldwide and it
can be easily seen in the massive investments that have been made in science and
technology and management areas from the 1950’s to the late 1990’s. We now need to
shift our attention to the new areas of value addition that is represented by the spectrum
of design capabilities and skills in the emerging knowledge driven economy of the next
decade and beyond. These policy initiatives cover a range of important steps that need
to be initiated by the Ministry of Industries that can put India in a leadership position in
the years to come and empower our industries to face the onslaught of global
competition gracefully and competently.

The country needs a National Design Policy. This could be developed and articulated in
consultation with all the stake holders under the guidance of the Honorable Minister of
Industries and the offices of the Ministry of Industry. This articulation should be ready to
be included in the draft plan document for the Tenth Five year Plan for national
consideration. Some immediate action plans may be considered for inclusion in the
current plans at the point that these are reviewed in the near future.

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The country needs a National Design Council to oversee the deployment of design
related investments and initiatives across the country. The task of the National Design
Council would be focused on design promotion leading to the use of design in all
sectors of our economy. NID has worked out a detailed plan of action for this initiative
and these can be mobilised with the support of the Honorable Minister of Industries.

In order to prepare the ground for such a major initiative on design policy, NID would
strongly recommend, that a Minister level study tour be organised to visit the leading
nations that have set up design policy initiatives at the national level. The Design
Council of the United Kingdom, The Japan Design Foundation and the MITI
infrastructure of Japan and the Singapore Design Foundation are three nations which
have provided global leadership through national policy and it has helped local industry
in a great many ways.

The Ministry of Industry may consider the creation of an R&D Royalty Cess that can be
imposed on all outflow of royalty payments made by industry for the purchase of design
and technology intellectual property rights and such a fund may be made available to
the National Design Council for strengthening the ability of our industries to face the
intense competition in a globalised economy. The state governments too will need to
look at the application of design skills and knowledge top bring substantial advantage to
their respective industries in an increasingly complex and competitive environment.

Political will in the country has to be mobilised to make these policy initiatives a reality
and both NID students and faculty must work together to make this happen at an early
date.

MPR/ED 3.9.2000

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