The Hindu Business Line : Demand for integrated national design policy

Hyderabad June 19 Given the potential Indian designers hold globally and the possibility of stepping up outsourcing work, there is a need for a comprehensive policy on design that lays special thrust on funding and innovation, according to Mr M.P. Ranjan, Principal Designer and Faculty, National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad.

The national design policy is a welcome move but needs to factor the potential Indian designers bring to the marketplace while creating a system that generates more designers.

Addressing a three-day national meet on `Living in a digital world - Challenges for designers and engineers', hosted by USID Foundation, Mr Ranjan, said that budgetary allocation for design was barely Rs 100 crore as against Rs 60,000 crore for science and technology. This called for laying special focus on design work and encouraging innovation in design through both financial support and by creating a platform for innovation.

New growth area

Experts advocated a concerted effort to encourage design and innovative work in the country by creating a platform for growth. This meant improving education curriculum and designing courses that meet such a demand.

The importance that this area has assumed lately could be gauged from the fact that many Indian IT companies are now recruiting designers, a clear sign that this is emerging to be a new growth area.

According to Mr Raman Saxena, Coordinator of USID, 2007, "there is a need to simplify human machine interface and it is here designers have a major role to play. Usability is a key area that needs to be focussed and designers have the potential to harness this power."

Referring to some of the features that get packed on to a mobile phone, most of which are not used, experts opined that this called for further simplification of user interface.