The Hindu Business Line : National Design Policy to be unveiled in January — `Designed in India' label to assure quality

THE Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion is all set to roll out the National Design Policy as a new-year gift to Indian designers in January 2006. As per the policy, those products coming under its ambit will require to meet certain minimum quality parameters before using the `Designed in India' label in the world market.

"The National Design Policy will be announced in January. Merely coming out with a policy statement will not suffice, as it will have to be followed up with implementation. Among other things, the `Designed in India' label will have to be linked with a certain quality specification," Mr N.N. Prasad, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, said.

The attempt would be to position `Designed in India' as a label that assures quality and utility. This could be in conjunction with other labels - `Made in India' and `Served from India'.

A mechanism will be worked out for creating a brand image for Indian designs through the award of an `India Design Mark' that satisfy certain criteria such as appeal, centricity, ergonomic features, safety and environment findings.

The tenure of the design policy will be three years and the Government is planning to come with a second design policy by that time.

To boost NID status: The policy also envisages declaring the National Institute of Design (NID) a global centre for excellence. "The NID was actively involved for the last 18 months in shaping this document which witnessed the active participation of stakeholders at meetings held in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. We have asked for Government assistance for high cost design infrastructure," said Dr Darlie Koshy, Executive Director, NID, said.

No feedback to draft policy: The ground has been cleared for the unveiling of the design policy as the draft policy that was posted on the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Web site on October 31 has got through the mandatory 30 days for receiving comments and suggestions.

According to Mr Prasad, who was here on Thursday to deliver the inaugural address at the fifth CII-NID Design Summit, the draft policy attracted hardly any comments/suggestions and was therefore ready to become policy in a couple of weeks time.

India Design Council: A major initiative envisaged under this is the setting up of the India Design Council with eminent personalities from different walks of life. The council, expected to become a platform for all stakeholders, will take steps to enhance the country's international competitiveness by raising the standards of design support and infrastructure, facilities, promotion, education, user research, standards and benchmarks for professional practice.

Given that the current availability of designers is not sufficient for the growing needs of Indian industry, the endeavour, with private sector involvement, would be to produce 5,000-8,000 designers a year. The attempt would be to get various State Governments to allocate land for setting up fresh design institutes, with technical support coming from the NID. An in-principle decision has been taken to set up another NID in one of the north-east States.

If the Ministry of Commerce and Industry plans for Indian design holds true, the country will become the Asian hub of design over the next two years. As per the script, once India emerges a design-outsourcing centre, five years down the line, market value of design industry will touch one per cent of GDP. A scenario designed to unfold if implementation keeps pace with policy.

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