India’s creative industry is shifting orbit. Though applauded for its enviable skills and yet restricted to mere stylisation for long, design is now gaining strategic position in business and industry. Annual design summits, announcement of National Design Policy, formation of India Design Council, the initiatives of design institutions and professional over the years … each move is bringing design closer to the national agenda of socio-economic development. Consequently, the role of design is being considered useful for the manufacturing and service industry alike.

Globally design innovations have created market leaders such as Apple, Samsung, Nintendo, Alessi, Whole Foods Market and many more.

On the home turf, Titan, Mahindra and Bajaj are among the brands that have invested in design innovation for competitive advantage. But at the level of public policy are we doing enough to make design-inclusive policies for our huge social and service sectors as well?

The real challenge is to connect the design policy with other public policies in the vast areas of national concern, viz. education, environment, public health, transportation, urban development and so on.

Led by design innovation

The creative industry world over has given better account of its performance following the policy initiative by respective governments. Korea, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan are cases in point. Till the sixties, Korea ranked amongst the poorest in the world while its products survived less on innovation and more on copying international designs.

Korea joined the WTO in 1995 and soon its policymakers realised the role of design for global competitiveness leading to its design policy in 1999. Today, it boasts some of the most competitive global brands, all led by design innovation.

Mixed show

So far India has had a mixed experience with its public policy formulation and implementation. The design policy in its present form does not articulate how design innovation can take care of the social sector and yet make it viable.

The creative industry today is being run by a large chunk of designers hired by various industries, design studios and independent designers. The average annual turnover of the design studios varies from Rs 2.5 crore to Rs 25 crore. However, India’s social sector still remains largely out of the purview of design intervention due to policy disconnect.

Design innovations are being experimented with to find ways to reduce carbon footprint and ensure sustainable development. The National Urban Housing and Habitat Policy, the National Urban Transport Policy and the National Environment Policy are small efforts in the right direction.

(The author is a Senior Faculty at National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad)

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