III world Country India - Why Design Plays vital Role, Perspective with DATA and Stats

We are a third world country in terms of economy, right? In terms of the global economy. And we are developing. We are developing. We are still developing. Can I tell you something? We used to be very rich people and very big entrepreneurs were there. And India used to be a innovative design led country a lot of times before, right? Almost 400, 500 years before. But after that we know how the history has changed and British freedom, everything, we all know that history. So let us now understand in this podcast how India is really growing and thriving with the help of designers. Okay? And there is a big China. So China has been a what you call copycat, but now it's not the game. China is developing and innovating products and India is also developing and innovating products. Let me tell you how a designer can contribute to a third world country like India. And what are all the things which you need to consider learning it because whatever we are designing is not just for our own living or making some money and becoming a product designer. No, it impacts thousands and thousands of lives. And if you learn it properly and if you really utilize the skills, whatever you got being a designer, it can even impact millions of lives. By designing your products or service, you have to know the importance and vitality. I'm going to be discussing the important statistics and the perspective why a designer in India needs to understand this before he jumps into this career. Will jump into this podcast to talk about design in India. It's a very long history and a tale, right? We have been innovators, entrepreneurs for lot many centuries. Even when you take in during the time of sword and Pandyan and which is a big empires in the country and Mughal architecture and the the dynasties which was like mostly which is influenced with different culture, different furnitures, interiors, architecture. In fact the living the lifestyle including the war equipments, everything was what you call. It was made in India. It was made by people on themselves. And we used to be entrepreneurs at that point of time, right? So a lot of things have really changed after the globalization have happened. And in fact the invasion of British which has influenced lot many things and the education system got disrupted and the way in which the entrepreneurship was developed in India was terribly changed into a different way. And then the traditional, what you call the gurukul system of learning has been destroyed and the rot way of learning which is like school learning, which is read, write and remember. These are all the things which is majorly influenced being a being a country. We have gone through it, right? So happened has happened. It's all about History. So first in this podcast you're going to understand the role of design in emerging economies in India. Okay, so the very big point, what I would say is India design growth is very, very high. Can I tell you something? Design is not just aesthetics, it's a crucial economic driver. According to Design Management Institute, design led companies outperform other industries by 200%. It is retrieving back. We have to understand that that is a very big reason. Like I'm seeing a very potential growth in Indian economy. And I've also recorded a podcast separately like how India design job and startups are growing in a massive scale. The old time is getting retracted back. Okay, so the big success story, what I can say is so Indian designers such as Satyendra Pakkale, Ritu Kumar and firms like Tata Elxi, so they are really making the aesthetics design and some of the artistic design in a more expressive way. So. So you can see nowadays Tata car and the styling, what Tata is doing is way more comparable with the global brands like BMW, Audi. Right? So that is really a transition. So transition of being a copycat to innovator. I would say India is moving from being a service provider to an innovation hub. So according to a Global Innovation Index 2021 India ranks 46th. That's very good ranking compared to previous. Right. And let me tell you, products were recognized globally like Tata Nano, Aravind Eye care Hospital, the Chumbak brand that showcase India's innovation and their products. So you might have heard about Chumbak and Tata Nano and all these things. Right? So go and understand why it is really what you call India is massively a what do you call service based economy during the time of Manmohan Singh as well. So. So there has been a lot of IT industries coming in and we used to be a service providers, always a service provider, right. Innovation was not completely in our portfolio. So products like this, people who are visionary like Tata and people who are really visionary like particularly Mahindra Design Studio. So they were in building lot of design aspect. In fact NID was founded with a very great help from Mahindra groups as well. If you go and read about history of nid, it was there. So industries and government is also taking an initiative how this can be brought in. Right. People were little, not very sure, but they wanted to plant that seed. That's why in 2011, I guess the parliament has also approved the government accreditation for institutes like design. Particularly NID got its accreditation and IDC Bombay so institute were very less. But the recognition was slowly gaining the pace. Right. So we were going into global level also. So, so what is the perspective when it comes to China? Okay, we need to compare with China. Right? So how do we learn from China's design transformation? This is the second part of this podcast. In early 2000s, China was notorious in imitating Western design, right? Like let's say iPhone is coming or maybe a electronic gadget is coming in next moment the same will be replicated in China. China government really recognized the importance of design and innovation policies and promoted later, not at that point of time. China has drastically improved. Can I tell you something? Chinese industries growth has seen an annual rate of 7.5% contributing to the economy, which is huge. Right? So it's a source given by China Industrial Design Association. We have to understand that India is not like that. We are growing, but it's not in this space. So what is the big reason why China has really made this what you call jump? It's a leap. I would say it's a leapfrog jump. So it's not like they are improving slowly. They wanted to become innovators because China is a big market and every supply is going to different parts of the world through China. So if China really starts innovating, what happens? It's a combination of manufacturing and industry and design. China will be a master blaster. And that's what is happening. China has consistently climbed the global design rankings and now competes with leading design nation. What lesson we can really learn is investing in design education. China is very successful in tying up with massive investment in design education. Definitely that's the big reason that transition happened from a copycat to an innovation led industry, a country, right? Definitely. India can take a lot of inspiration from them. And also like let's say government can support for policies relating to design, research and innovation and patent. And a lot of projects could be initiated. A lot of craft and what you call indigenous innovation practices could be brought back. Like with respect to textile, with respect to pottery, with respect to ceramics. So there were a lot of, what do you call culture which is already dying in India. Like particularly when you see bamboo. There are more than 17 lakh artisans available in India across bamboo who are making a living out of it. Right? So imagine if bamboo is taking over the market, entire infrastructure building, building plastic, steel, sheet metals, everything would be replaced by bamboo. And even we can export to different, different countries if you are building on that. So that is what is really required. People who are really thinking about design, this is a golden period to join because There are a lot of potential which needs to be tapped in Indian market. If not government, if not policies, if not designers, at least people coming from now who can definitely see that and they can improve it. Having said that, I'm also taking a lot of initiatives and I did two of my innovative projects in retrieving one of the oldest honey bee extraction method. I did one indigenous innovation for that. And the thing is there are lot many crafts available like that. We have to go and understand deep research and think how it can be retrieved and brought those own practices so that it can add a huge value to our economy, right? I'm saying one example example which in my own personal project experience, what about every designer really thinks about like this, right? There are thousands and thousands of designers in India who can think about retrieving back a lot of things. And India will definitely become a huge innovation led country if we focus on this kind of a micro small industries which is leading to crafts, right? So let's go for the third part of this podcast which is how aspiring designers can focus See, service design is about creating creating positive user experience, right? According to a Deloitte, a company which prioritizes user experience witness 75 percentage customer loyalty. That is why bringing back that old innovation and tradition and culture. If you add the latest UI UX and better experience parameter for the products and services, whether you're building a physical product tradition, digital product, that doesn't matter. People will be able to pay a lot more for that services and even we can sell sell it for different countries and we can even export our products and services, right? So that's what is the thing. So successful implementation like Aadhaar system and UPI unified payment interface has made a lot of people use digital payment transaction way in a more accessible way, right? So user interface and user experience has made that digitalization like creating all Aadhar system for the country is not a joke, right? So already India is turning in that particular phase and definitely payment methods better than upi. Payment methods and transaction systems better than any other things are definitely developing. And Indian government is really focusing on lot many things like this, right? So what is system design? So we need to understand if you are talking about this design innovation. So system design involves creating a holistic approach for interconnected components. Mackenzie says that embracing a system approach or 50 percentage more likely to outperform their peers. So we need to not just think about making our own product, serving the people, gaining some profit. No, it's not like that. Then we'll be sticking only with Corporate and going back to the old this thing, right? But when we think about system interdependency and dependency, how one industry success can lead to another industry success and how one can help each other during the different, different climatic zones and different, different ups and downs in the market and how everybody can collaboratively win, win the market will make systems work better. That is why in design itself system designers are valued more particularly in Europe. They are, they are having lot of courses with respect to system design and people are getting started and making some innovations in that circular economy. System design has really made a huge difference. But in India it's. It's little, it's relatively very, very small. One of my professor, Praveen Nahar in nid, he takes this subject, we really got enlightened by this way of thinking in systems. There is a book called Thinking in Systems by Donala Medus. You can read about that. It's a beautiful book. There is a book called Circular Economy also. So you can read and understand how systems are connected and how design will really impact a ripple effect in that. So let me tell you one thing. Indian Railways digitalization, you know what, their efficiency has been drastically improved. Their integrated systems in complete Indian Railways digitalization has really, really improved a lot. And you can see a lot of new, what you call applications. And you can see the revamp of IRCTC application. And you can see the new train design. And you can see there is a bullet train project running and there is a Vande Bharat trains have come and you can look at the interiors. We are improving our color sense, our aesthetics, our choice of materials and ingredients. Experience is really becoming high. Let me tell you. The consumer behavior is also getting high. The Nielsen study found that 63% of the consumer buy products based on packaging design. Definitely India is working on that, right? It's working on sustainability as well. So there are a lot of successful stories which is like Reva electric car and almost all the manufacturers are now producing electric car. It's not only about aesthetics, it's about functionality and the pollution and the overall system, how it is affected. India is really thinking about. So there is opening in automotive sector, in industry sector, in product sector and digitalization sector, in AR and VR sector and artificial intelligence sector. So there are a lot of opportunities opening up. As a designer. Let me tell you guys, design and Indian economy is really impacting the GDP of India by 5 percentage. It's not very high, but it's relatively better than compared to you earlier, right? It's a report by Confederation of Indian Industry design related activities has the potential to create millions of job in various sectors in design. In design itself, I'm saying national design policy discuss that emphasizing its role in design across industries, right? Like industries have not seen design as a big part. But now national design policy is made in that way. Industries. Even it's a small scale startup, MSME has to really realize it's potential. There are skill initiatives which is happening in India. Skill India initiative plays a very very crucial role in developing the skilled workforce relating to design, right? So what do you really understand by this? We've discussed lot of statistics and improvement how India is really becoming. Let me close this thought for you guys. As an aspiring designer, we need to focus on education and skill development. Whether government spends for you or not, you need to really take care of your education and awareness, right? Of course we can suggest to government. But I would say taking responsibility for your own career, your own life will make all the difference first. So advocating for a very very quality education is very important, right? Like let's say the importance staying updated in the industry tense is very important. We can post to government, we can create projects, we can work for government sector. But we need to also take care of ourselves first. Showcasing our own initiatives, what we are taking stake some self projects, work for a startup or maybe showcase your ideas, develop your own products. Even you can register a company and you can make a startup. You can read lot many courses. You can take a good mentorship program. It's not required that you need to go for a big design institute globally or nationally to study. It's not the case, right? Collaborating and networking is becoming more more important. Guys. Professional association is very vital. Join some professional associations like association of Designers of India for networking opportunities. You can find relevant people, like minded people who can fund you, who can help you with design, who can help you with services like association of Designers of India. I'll put the link on it. You can able to check out on this. You can conduct a lot of design thinking workshops and you can participate in that also and improve your skills over that. That is the responsibility you have as a designer. It's not just listening to this podcast is just reflecting how 5% of the growth for economic GDP is affected because of design sector and how learning system design and bringing the old interconnectedness. What India used to be is very very important for that. Because already India is opening up in a lot of industries. Automotive, transportation and particularly industries and product design, digitalization, AI, artificial intelligence and particularly augmented reality and virtual reality. Experiences. So you cannot really worry about whether I'll get a job this, that or not. That's like completely a BS if you're thinking in that after listening to the statistics, whatever I told you, you can see a huge amount of potential. What is there? India has a very huge population, we have a very huge workforce. And even According to a Nashcom status, I told you 23 percentage annual rate is growing. So you need to reflect on this and you need to find your real potential of being a designer. If your decision is really not strong, particularly in 2024, if you're thinking whether you want to really go for a design field, this is a golden period and golden era, guys. If you're entering design and learning the skills, you become a master in that and you need to learn it with full heartedly. See, I also have a mentorship program where I teach people 100% people will not get succeeded success. People who are very determined people are very serious, they are very hard working. You know what, in less than three months I make them get at least minimum of 50 to 60,000 per month salary and they have to double or triple their salary if they're already a designer. So that is the kind of period which you have to dedicate to learn and upskill yourself. Learning this, knowing the statistics will not change anything. Taking action into what you really want to do as a design designer will do it. Okay, let me recap you guys. India is not the same before 10 years or before 20 years, right? We have a very crucial role to play in design whole economy of the globe. And let me tell you, the creative effort, whatever we are putting and learning, we will become success of it, right? I deeply thank you for this particular listening to this important perspective what I wanted to tell about this design in India. So you need to also reflect on it. Okay? I hope this podcast would have given you some clarity. If you want my mentorship support to help you reach your design goals, you can write to that email dfcdesignforchangemail.com our team or myself will revert back to you if we find your serious. Definitely we can able to help you. Okay, so thank you so much for listening to this podcast. If you find it useful, you can rate me 5 star rating in Apple and Smart Spotify and you can subscribe for further episodes. And thank you so much guys. Take care. All the best and a very happy new year.