Adapted from CII India Design Report 2020. Read the full report here – https://www.cii.in/webcms/Upload/a2.pdf
We live in interesting times defined by exponential change. We have increasingly learned to adapt to this change, but are yet to fully learn to accept it. This has lead to massive economic and social upheavals during current times. In our quest for industrialization followed by knowledge and service commoditization, we nearly forgot society. People who are still impoverished, people with special needs, people with low incomes are still unserved, causing anxiety and extreme reactions. Design is a perfect response to bind people together and to elevate human life through harmonious synchronization of needs and solution. Design is something that makes business and social sense at the same time. In the present and forthcoming scheme of things design certainly has a very important role to play by helping companies and societies to accept and adapt to the changing climate and to capitalize on the change by turning it into an opportunity.
Design has evolved from being a vocation dealing with form and function to a new approach of developing business models. Design has also evolved over the past years from being a mere function of styling or aesthetics (where form and function are the focus) to design as a process (where design thinking is integrated into the development process). Today it has become a strategic element and an innovation leading process. From modest beginning Indian Design Industry is on a maturity curve now. At this juncture it needs a strategic and long term direction to fortify the gains already made. Even though the design industry in India is very small at present, its economic impact is quite high as it helps major industry sectors by augmenting their business value and competitiveness.
Design can transform the way we do things, and result in new economic benefits and a better quality of life. The strategic nature of design helps solve problems in ways that are functionally and aesthetically pleasing and make economic sense. Design helps to improve quality and differentiation, offer world class products and services, improve business efficiencies, productivity and margins, increase revenues and achieve higher market share and accelerated growth.
This report presents the Indian Design Industry in its present form. The analyses and statistics are based on desk research, interviews and questionnaires. Due to the scarcity of well defined and regularly collected data about the Indian design industry, and also due to inadequate survey information this report does not give an entirely accurate picture of the industry. Information and data on design as an economic activity is not available. Also as it is the first such report, the historical perspective of growth of design industry is unavailable. In spite of data inadequacies, the report attempts to present an accurate picture of the design industry, scope and activities of the industry and supporting structures using available information.
