The newly-formed India Design Council (IDC) is spearheaded by Pradyumna Vyas, director of the Ahmedabad-based National Institute of Design (NID), who spoke to DNA.
India, which produces barely 1,000 designers every year, against 30,000 that China produces, has taken up the challenge seriously. The newly-formed India Design Council (IDC) held its first meeting on June 18 at Mumbai to help evolve an effective National Design Policy (NDP).
The 25-member council, with three-year term, is spearheaded by Pradyumna Vyas, director of the Ahmedabad-based National Institute of Design (NID) as its member secretary and presided over by Anand Mahindra, managing director of Mahindra and Mahindra Limited. The council has announced setting up of three task forces to begin with.
“The NDP aims at a better economy and quality of life in the country by means of optimum application of design in various sectors,” Vyas told DNA. “The task force will create strategies and standards which will lead companies to implement holistic designs; from good contextual system design for innovative and sustainable practice with less carbon footprints to designs leading to better quality products,” he added.
He said, “The task force will also work toward introduction of ‘I-mark’, which will be a standard symbol for a well-designed product in the country, and could be used for recognising and encouraging good design practice in industries. A product entitled with ‘I-mark’ could use the symbol to enhance its advertisement and sales promotions.”
Talking about formation of NDP and IDC, Vyas said, “We are comparatively late. Many countries including Japan, German, Malaysia, Singapore and UK already have their own well-established design councils. Countries like UK and Japan have made significant economic gains through implementation of design policies.”
The task force will have five or six members each, from industries, academics and design houses. The three task forces are - task force to evaluate the design institutes in the country and create a benchmark for these institutes, task force to set up standards for good design practice in the country and task force to workout how industries could gain from government through the practice of good design.
While the task forces will come up with recommendations by the end of six months, they will file a report about the progress of their works in the council’s next meeting on September 14 in Mumbai.
NDP was approved by the union cabinet on February 8, 2007 and the IDC was formed on March 2, 2009.
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