‘NID has taken key steps to bring industry to campus’

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: Change necessitates design; design interprets change. As director of the country’s premier design institute since 2000, Darlie Koshy has followed this principle to guide the operations of the National Institute of Design (NID) both at home and abroad. A doctorate in management from IIT Delhi, Koshy is considered the chief architect not only of Brand NID, but also of revolutionising the way design is perceived in the country. In a rare and candid interview with FE’s Jyotsna Bhatnagar, Koshy elaborates on a host of issues, including the status of design education in the country to design’s new role in shaping the country’s GDP. Excerpts:

When NID was conceived in 1958 and set up in 1961, design was confined to the realms of roti, kapada and makaan. How has it evolved since then?

India was a protected economy until the early ‘90s. Basic survival necessities were key issues and, therefore, design was more oriented towards crafts and to some extent small-scale industries. Today, with discretionary incomes rising, along with the forces of globalisation impacting tastes and preferences, the role of design and innovation have assumed far greater importance. Design has moved along from its focus on products and images of daily use or luxuries to services and experiences that impact on quality of life.

What has been the strategy and evolution of Brand NID?

When I took over as director of NID in June 2000, the institute was in rather bad shape. Today, we have world-class infrastructure for education and research. Another strategy was to introduce 17 broad sector specific postgraduate programmes. In addition, it was necessary to globally benchmark NID by streamlining the systems and processes through the ‘system of educational excellence in design’ and by entering into MoUs with more than 30 best-in-class institutions around the world.

It was also necessary to scale up the intake of students, which has gone from around 70 in 2000 to over 280 now, with a corresponding increase in throughput from 33 in 2001 to around 250 in recent years. Another strategic area was rebuilding the faculty cadre. From a Rs 5-6-crore organisation in 1990-2000, NID has become Rs 26-crore organisation in 2007-08, with a corpus of Rs 29 crore. This is the story of building Brand NID.

Specifically, how is NID serving the growth of industrial and other crucial sectors of the economy? Can you illustrate with significant achievements?

NID has taken key steps to bring industry to the campus, and has also made efforts to connect the campus with industry across the country. Many industries now make it a habit to come to the campus. Industry has become aware of the need for user-centric good design. Through industry programmes, we have trained over 2,500 working professionals in the last 5 years, thus taking the message to different segments of industry. Significant consultancy projects and highly challenging new programmes have helped to serve high-growth industry segments. Bridging the demand gap for designers has helped industry a great deal in recent years.

As the key architect of the first National Design Policy, could you give us insights into the background work that went into shaping this policy and what is the blueprint, with particular focus on the role of design education?

I have been inspired by the design policies of some Scandinavian countries and also of the Korean Design Policy. Today, India has a National Design Policy that is looked upon as an important document for evolving the Indian design scene. The policy lays special emphasis on the spread of design education, and has endorsed NID becoming a deemed university, for which work has already been completed. In the near future, NID will become India’s first National Design University. More campuses in the lines of NID are also envisaged, apart from a major initiative to introduce design in the engineering curriculum.

NID has succeeded in creating industry-sponsored research chairs. What is the concept and how has this helped build the industry-institute nexus? What is the actual role of research in design?

I discovered quite early on that design has been a strange victim of practice. Industry-funded research chairs--the first of which was set up with the help of Jindal Stainless and the latest being that of the Jamsetji Tata Research Chair with a corpus of Rs 325 lakh--are focused on generating new research opportunities for faculty and students. Without fundamental and applied research, Indian design will remain incremental. From a follow-the-leader policy to design leadership, the journey is tough and can be achieved only through cutting-edge research.

How has NID enabled industry to take the ideas to the marketplace? What is the scene for designers and design consultancies in the country?

NID has succeeded in convincing the department of science & technology to set up the first national design incubator on campus from 2005, which will be converted shortly into a Section 25 company and expand its activities with a government-supported rolling venture fund. For the first time in India, we have created a platform for ideas through the design idea fair, which will enable industry and entrepreneurs to buy ideas off the shelf. The future of Indian design and designers is bright, as we are seeing the growth curve just starting to gather momentum.

What steps will you be taking to ensure institutional autonomy and protection of Brand NID?