NATIONAL INITIATIVE FOR DESIGN INNOVATION IS ON COURSE

Government of India launched the scheme of “National Initiative for Design Innovation (NIDI)” in March, 2014. Scheme envisaged establishment of 20 Design Innovation Centres (DIC), One Open Design School (ODS) and One National Design Innovation Network (NDIN) across the country for promoting the culture of innovation, design and creative problem-solving.

Presently, 20 DICs have been established on Hub-Spoke Model with 64 Spokes. DIC Hubs include 10 Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), 9 Central/State Government Universities and a School of Planning and Architecture. ODS and NDIN have been established in IIT, Bombay and Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore respectively.

The NIDI scheme does not provide the allocation of funds to any specific district. DICs are established by co-locating them in existing publicly funded institutes of national reputes, like IIT’s, NIT’s, Central and State universities, to facilitate optimal utilization of the existing resources including faculty and infrastructure with a funding of Rs.10.00 Cr. for each DIC. Institutes are selected for setting up of DICs on the basis of the thematic areas to be worked upon, innovative ideas/products to be developed under the scheme, discipline of institute.

The objective of the scheme is to promote a culture of innovation and creative problem-solving. It is envisaged that these DICs would not only focus on the spread of design education but also propel the R&D activities in design that become the catalyst for devising innovative solutions to societal challenges suiting Indian conditions.

The details of the purposes are :

• Promote a culture of innovation and creative problem solving;

• Promote knowledge sharing and collaboration amongst industry, academia, Government Institutions, research laboratories, etc;

• To serve as a location for the industrial collaborators to encourage their new Product Development in the campus using in-house facilities.

• To serve as a place that imparts design based education and practice systematic design through projects.

• To enhance interdisciplinary design-focused innovation and creativity.

• To facilitate interdisciplinary design-focused education, research and entrepreneurial activities in order to create commercial opportunities and build partnerships between academics and industry.

• To promote, nurture and advance the culture of design and innovation in the country leading to significant contributions and breakthroughs impacting quality of human life.

• To create an ecosystem facilitating students and faculty to take their innovative ideas from classrooms/labs to market/people.

• To facilitate evolution of new models of academia-industry interactions as well as academia-social interactions and develop institutional networks for innovations in the thematic areas.

• To promote innovations which are both inclusive and disruptive.

• To build a flagship programme in the areas of design and innovation which can be replicated in other institutes/universities in our country.

• To promote all forms of innovations in the complete value chain from process to product, including innovation as a discipline itself.

• To promote increased interactions/collaborations with institutes/organizations World-wide working in the areas of design and innovation.

DICs have been developing the culture of design innovation in the country and continuously creating an atmosphere where students and community come together to make a difference in human life.

Under the scheme, more than 50 start-ups have been initiated/supported, around 2000 innovative products initiated/delivered and approximately 250 patents are filed.