CII Awards to Ananya Seeds. Best manufacturing start up. Top 10 most promising start up company. Dr L K Pandey

1. Institutional & Initiative Partners
Technology
Development Board
Ministry of
Human Resource Development
Government of India
Department of Science
& Technology
Government of India
Department of Industrial
Policy & Promotion
Government of India
National S&T
Entrepreneurship Board
Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises
Ministry of Micro, Small
& Medium Enterprises
Government of India
All India Council for
Technical Education
Design,
Innovation &
Entrepreneurship
Special
Quarterly Newsletter
Vol. 6
July 2016
SERB
DIANI
Government of Gujarat

2. C O N T E N T S
Policy Watch
Numbers Speak
Sectoral Round UP
CII Strides
QuaRter that was
Watch out for
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10
14
25
31
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3. 3
G
lobalization continues to intensify. It is not
something new, but every day it is assuming a
different meaning. Inspite of the intense nature of
globalization, localized consumer cultures reflecting
different lifestyles is also becoming predominant. The
emerging consumer cultures are increasingly characterized
by lifestyles, traditions and cultures.
If we reflect upon this paradox, one thing becomes very
clear that companies need to adapt themselves to a fine
balance between both. At the same time, the local consumer
cultures present a unique opportunity for the companies to
differentiate themselves in a commoditized market.
The nature of competition has also changed. Today one
cannot compete on product features alone. Even if one
does, the advantage is not sustainable. Earlier, companies
use the reply on the intuition of the CEO and the
experience of the R&D Manager for innovation. The
responsibility of innovation stood on the shoulders of R&D
supported by marketing departments. In today's times it is
simply not enough. For companies to maintain their
leadership they need to adopt a holistic approach to
innovation backed by structured methods.
Innovation as an activity or as a pursuit is not new. It has
been happening in various forms for a very long time,
perhaps from the time of evolution of mankind. In this
quest for innovation, if something has changed then it is
how do we manage innovation. Innovation management is
a young and a very important discipline for all of us to
pursue. Managing innovation means to manage the
interfaces on the development path and to reduce the
distance between an idea and its implementation.
This is the area where Design and Design Thinking plays a
very crucial role. It binds different internal and external
stakeholders within an organization towards a common goal
of innovation and also unearths new opportunities to be
Design
Hrridaysh Deshpande
Director
DYPDC School of Design
Design &
Make in India

4. Policy Watch
pursued. Design is a key whether it is to exploit an existing
technology or to find meanings of a new technology.
Embracing Design helps companies bring to market, new
products more quickly consuming fewer resources, and
delivering new solutions that are appreciated by the
consumer. The high level of performance in product
development allows a company to reduce costs, add a
varied product portfolio and respond to changing
customer expectations quickly.
The Make in India mission is a pivotal mission. We can
achieve the objectives of Make in India mission through a
closer coordination between the government policy and
the forward-looking private-sector strategies. CII is
already catalyzing this and will continue to play an
important role in enabling this mission.
In our quest for manufacturing investments we cannot
solely rely on technology-intensive industries as they are
inherently labor saving which defeats the important
purpose of this mission that is to create new jobs. In order
to achieve job-creating growth, we will need to place
greater emphasis on labor-intensive manufacturing.
We must take proactive steps to connect design with the
industry vitality. The seeds are already sown in the form of
a National Design Policy. Now it is pertinent to help these
sprouts of different initiatives to grow and define India's
pre-eminence in the world of brilliant products and
services that are sold and traded across the world.
Innovation policies of the Government have consisted of
incentivizing investments in science and technology and
support to technology transfer. Technology is crucial for
national innovation and wealth, but so is design. It is high
time that some Government attention is diverted to Design
to support companies to better understand the strategic
contribution of design for increasing competitiveness.
There are several countries that have embraced design as
their future path. Asian economies such as Japan, China,
South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand and Philippines
are leading the wave. Each of them have distinctive
policies to support and promote design. In India we too
have a National Design Policy. Now it is time to strengthen
this policy with increased government impetus and
financial support.
Design by itself is a small entity and its stakeholders do not
have the resources to create a national impact. Hence
Government assistance is essential. It is suggested that a
new model be evolved which is centered on Government –
pull and the design stakeholder – push. The Government
could initiate funding backed programs, which thereon are
carried forward by Design stakeholders.
The labor-intensive manufacturing and the new product
development are at the cornerstone to achieve the goals of
Make in India mission through Design. Considering that
Design is the major driver for growth and competitiveness,
a special tax incentive for manufacturing companies using
design is proposed.
There is an urgent need for the government to introduce an
incentive scheme with a view to attracting manufacturing
industry to increase their investment in design. As a first
step, allowing companies to enjoy tax deduction on their
relevant design expenditure would be a feasible option.
The tax incentive should apply to companies of all sectors
which undertake in-house design activities or out-sourced
design services.
It is suggested that a parliamentary panel be constituted
under the leadership of a pragmatic, progressive Member
of Parliament with an objective to identify how best to
strengthen the relationship between businesses -
particularly SMEs - and design. The National Design Policy
can become the basis for such a panel. Such an initiative
will go a long way to establish steps that the Government
and Design Stakeholders should take to ensure that Indian
businesses and society harness the power of design.
We must make design and our designers the centerpiece
of the India brand. We urge the Government to set the
stage for creating a new Indian story based around the
design as its protagonist.
T
he Startup landscape in India has evolved
significantly in the last few years and it is important
to analyze trends in the Startup segment from a
practitioner, customer, investor and regulator perspective.
There are five key changes in the last few years which have
driven innovation in startup segment so far and it is the
point of inflection for innovation in India.
• The first change is the shift in market dynamics in
India. The new age Statrt Ups design ground up for
Indian markets and are green field ventures. They are
no longer a tweak on an existing design of the
developed world but a new India centric design. This is
driven by the fact that India is now a significant market
for consumption, in addition to being a leading
supplier of talent for global markets.
Vijaya Kumar Ivaturi
&Co-founder CTO
Crayon Data
A Journey of
Aspirations –
Startups in India
Innovation &
entrepreneurship
4

5. • The second change is related to technology. In the era
of internet platforms such as Amazon, there are few
upfront IT costs to start a venture. With the
proliferation of laptops, tablets, mobiles and
broadband access, it is much quicker for an
entrepreneur to get started than in the earlier decades,
and that too without a latency for IT setup.
• The third change, a significant one, perhaps is a shift in
the social perception. A Start Up career is now an
acceptable career choice in India and is not limited to
the traditional rich or the mavericks. This is perhaps the
biggest factor for the changing innovation landscape
in India with the influx of young entrepreurs with high
energy and zeal.
• The fourth change is the availability of Angel and
venture funds in India. While they were present earlier
as well, now there is an influx of both new funds as well
as mentors who have experience in business functions
of different Industries and are not limited to finance
professionals. This results in the financing ability at an
early stage of ideation and lends support to the idea to
turn it into a scalable business. There are many
incubation programmes for Start Ups in India and they
offer both patient and smart capital along with
mentors to guide the journey.
• The fifth change is the impact of globalization on the
connections in the ecosystem. Almost every new Start
Up in India is a cross border Start Up either in terms of a
customer segment; development centre presence;
investor group or strategic alliances. It is more an
exception than a rule to have an only India connected
Start Up.
This new Start Up revolution that is taking place in India has
some key features. Some of these from a Start Up sector
perspective are outlined here.
• India and Bharat - Many Start Up solutions focus on
Bharat and not just urban India as a market. (India rural
and urban poor are significant segments for volume).
• Last Mile - Many new age solutions address the last
mile problem with low cost or frugal engineering
solutions.
• Content - Traction is building up for Indian language
content and the high mobile penetration in rural India
is forcing many local players to support native
language interfaces for their consumers.
• Government - Many solutions are built around key
Government programmes. (UID, NPCI etc.). In fact, the
Government has emerged as a major driver for new
opportunties for Indian focused Start Ups in areas such
as e-governance, mobile payments, smart cities, e-
learning, civic solutions, smart grids and farm to fork
integration.
• Local Communities - India Cluster specific solutions
are getting popular (Homogenous crowd).
• Funding- Social impact funds are gaining traction and
are involved in the field. Most funds are in the areas of
public health, sanitation, education, agriculture and
urban poor solutions. They demand the same level of
rigor and discipline from a Start Up but give a much
longer time frame to deliver both financial and social
impact.
As it is true for any ecosystem, the Indian ecosystem too
comes with its own set of challenges. There are some
critical factors which make solution engineering
remarkably different from those designed for developed
markets.
• Network Access- The data rate is still lower and error
prone. Hence solutions need to take care of slow and
intermittent connections.
• Power - Most solutions built for the rural users, assume
a 15 day power cycle for charging. As most end points
are delivered based on the smart phone penetration in
rural India, the charging cycle makes or breaks the
system of delivery. Ingenious solutions built around
solar or wind power to charge the elcetronics and
blended use of existing equipment in rural households
is one of the hallmarks of local innovation systems.
• Skill Sets–There is a lack of skills for interface design for
new products. Complex solutions built on foundation
layers are therefore difficult to engineer in India. For a
long time, we have been given the requirements of the
Western markets to build solutions for. We have
perhaps modified some of the developed world
solutions to make them work for India. With a ground-
up design approach, much of the front end design and
engineering fall under the local team's scope. This is
where our knowledge gaps in understanding the
preferences of the local people and a user centric
design approach come to light, demanding an India
design ethos for these diverse user groups.
• Buyers– A classical Indian buyer mindset is to buy only
when it solves a real and urgent issue. As an economy
built on scarcity there is preference for utility or
functional value over performance or desirability
dimension. It is therefore important to anchor the
solution in the context of current challenges while
pushing for a shift in user adoption or behaviour.
• Investor - The scale of investment in Angel funding,
while it has definitely improved in recent times, is still
lower than that in the Valley. The exit market dynamics
is still not mature in terms of value and quality. There is
no dearth of capital but the investable quality of Start
Ups is still nascent and early stage investors are in the
process of learning the difference between money
5
Policy Watch

6. lending in a traditional way of providing loans versus
investing with a risk capital mindset.
• Branding - Dependence on big names for global
branding. There are very few product brands from
India which command global recognition and respect.
The Indian brand story for high tech products on the
global platform is still emerging. It is true that most of
the iconic brands in the world have an Indian
contribution in someway, but the lack of end user
brand value for Indian products is a challenge.
Information technology industry is a case in point. The
Start Up ecosystem thrives on the unbundling of layers in
the design of systems and innovation kickstarts when
different layers in the technology stack unbundle.
The advances in tactile technologies covering touch and
gesture took the user experience to a different level of
interaction intimacy bringing with it a sense based appeal.
This brought many right brain oriented artists to the realm
of Big Data solutions to collaborate with the left-brain
focused Computer and Data Scientists. In fact, many
present solutions are experience led designs rather than
computation led designs. This is one of the main reasons
for consumerization of enterprise IT systems where the
device led experience of the business users is driving the
design changes in the backend systems running either on
corporate servers or on cloud systems.
Visual design in Big Data systems has undergone
significant transformation in the recent years. It is mainly
driven by the emergence of tactile interfaces in UI and the
trends in Information Systems design architecture. The rise
of mobile first designs helped fuse these two axes, driving
a new paradigm when it comes to the integration of data
and experience.
The emergence of cross domain skills for the new age
opportunities is a welcome change but it results in the skill
gaps as most of our academic learning systems are
unidimensional and classroom oriented. The demand for
both field experience and theortical rigour is one of the
reasons why the new age firms find it difficult to recruit at
scale.
While it is good to follow some Indian success stories in the
recent times, it is worthwhile paying attention to where we
differ from developed market systems, and this drives
many of our local design choices.
• Lack of sectoral depth in the market as the top 2 or 3
companies in a sector dominate the field and the
quality of the business in terms of revenue quality,
governance and product offering drops dramatically
beyond the key players.
• Bias towards size or volume as we are primarily a scale
driven economy where being big is more valuable than
being better.
• Functional view rather than performance view is our
pre dominant mindset and we pay more for features
than for performance.
• Underdeveloped in refinement and advancement, in
choice and taste. As utility dominates our thinking
preference, our tastes are not well developed for non-
functional aspects of the system.
• Community based conformance in business and social
practices. Social practice driven by local community
has an unusually strong influence on our business
methods.
• Trust in a person is more important than trust in the
system. This is a unique feature of any developing
market where system level trust is absent or minimal.
• Living with chaos and vagueness everyday; The life in
personal space is full of chaos while the life at work is
more defined. This paradox is amusing for any visitor to
India. You may write kernel software in your work
place, but you will still run for a water tanker or cooking
oil at home. In other words, basic living consumes a lot
of time.
• We are a more duty based society than a rights based
society and this drives a lot of our work-life balance
decisions.
There are many other shifts in the innovation ecosystem
today. One of them is the emergence of social science as a
critical input to the design of many next generation
technology based solutions. This is a move towards cross
discipline opportunities which is driving unique and
engaging collaborations across sectors, regions and
subjects.
The focus on inclusive growth initiatives and the rise of
social impact ventures is adding impetus to the current
innovation drivers. It is the beginning of an innovation
driven economy in India and an opportunity to think fresh,
fast and big for the new normal for nation building.
I
n n o v a t i o n i s t h e s p e c i fi c i n s t r u m e n t o f
entrepreneurship. The act that endows resources with a
new capacity to create wealth.
Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005), Author and Management
Consultant Entrepreneurs determine the economic and
the social fabric of nations by creating wealth and
employment, offering products and services and
Sriram Subramanya
Co-Founder, Managing Director
& CEO, Integra Software Services
Pvt. Ltd.
Innovation &
Entrepreneurship
Development in India
6
Policy Watch

7. generating taxes for Governments. Entrepreneurship as a
growth engine has closely been linked to economic
growth. Entrepreneurs convert ideas into economic
opportunities through innovations which are considered
to be a major source of competitiveness in an increasingly
globalizing world economy.
It is observed that entrepreneurship prevalence rates are
highest in the 25-34 age group and with a young
population in India where 63% of the Indian population is in
the age group of 15-59 years, it is a big strategic advantage
that India has over many developing countries and this is
proving to be a great differentiator for us. With this kind of
advantage, if the right conditions for entrepreneurship and
innovation are created, India can be the world's largest
economy by 2050.
A spider diagram created by the World Economic Forum
indicating a nation's Global Competitiveness across 12
pillars reveals that in India Innovation ranks lowest next
only to technological readiness while India also has the
largest market size.
After five years of (economic) decline, India jumped 16
ranks to 55th place. This dramatic reversal is largely
attributable to the momentum created by the election of
Mr. Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister, whose pro-
business, pro-growth, and anti-corruption stance has
improved the business community's sentiment towards
the Government. Areas such as technological readiness
still deserve more attention. India continues to be amongst
the digitally least connected countries in the world (120th,
up one). Fewer than one in five Indians access the Internet
on a regular basis, and fewer than two in five are estimated
to own even a basic cell phone.
The basic education system is still too focused on grades
and careers and is not oriented towards innovation and
entrepreneurship. While industry craves solutions to their
problems, the academic institutions are generally too busy
performing routine academic exercises, churning out
educated manpower that is often ill suited to either
innovative industries or entrepreneurship. This is very
evident from the fact that our educational institutions are
yet to be ranked among the Top 100 in the world. This of
course has a lot to do with the extent of world class
research emanating from our universities and its impact on
the Global minds. There may, however, be few exceptions
to this general view.
The linkages between industry, especially medium and
small-scale enterprises and R&D or academic institutions
are weak. Industry requires proven technologies, but
institutions can only offer technologies at considerably
earlier stages (i.e., at mostly a laboratory or pilot scale),
meaning there is still much work to be done to bring
technologies to market. There is also considerably less
funding and mentorship support available from the private
sector. There is no easy exchange of manpower between
the industry and academia or R&D institutions, which limits
their capacity for mutual understanding and technology
transfer.
The fact also remains that Indian entrepreneurs often seek
established technology as a basis for starting their
business. Often they import an existing technology in the
West and distribute it in India. They are hesitant to take on
innovative ideas because of the risks involved, including
the low availability and high cost of funds that often arrive
too late. As a result, they look for minimum risk and quick
returns. The potentially higher returns from innovation
take time to realize, and not enough entrepreneurs are
willing (or able) to accept the risks.
According to the "Report of the Committee on Angel
Investment & Early Stage Venture Capital" (Planning
Commission, 2012), despite 100 angel networks operating
in India (e.g., Indian Angel Network; Chennai Angels), only
tens of deals are made each year. For such a populous
country as ours, this magnitude of deals is very low
compared to the numbers from other countries and they
certainly fall short of India's requirements. The report also
indicates low levels of early-stage venture capital
investment: around USD 240 million per year. And, here
too, there are only few hundred deals per year. Indian
angels are constrained by regulations that make
investments and exit cumbersome (Planning Commission,
2012).
According to the Global Innovation Index (WIPO, 2014),
India ranks 76th among the 143 countries surveyed, having
fallen 10 positions since the last report and having fallen
relative to other BRIC economies. A smaller slide of one
position down the rankings of the Global Competitive
Index leaves India in the 60th position amongst 148
countries (Schwab, 2013).
Courtesy : Competitiveness Index, World Economic Forum,
India Data across 12 Competitiveness Pillars
1st pillar:
Institutions
2nd pillar:
Infrastructure
3rd pillar:
Macroeconomic
environment
4th pillar: Health
and primary
education
5th pillar: Higher
education and
training
6th pillar: Goods
market efficiency
7th pillar: Labour
market efficiency
8th pillar:
Financial market
development
9th pillar:
Technological
readiness
10th pillar:
Market size
11th pillar:
Business
sophistication
12th pillar:
Innovation 7
6
5
4
3
2
1
7
Policy Watch

8. In India, the innovation ecosystem includes individual
innovators and entrepreneurs; mentors; government policies;
angel, venture capital, institutional, and industrial funding
mechanisms, intellectual property rights mechanisms;
technology transfer mechanisms; market inputs; and
incentives, awards and other innovation-recognition
mechanisms, among others. Ideally, these various structures
and mechanisms facilitate the smooth translation of
innovations through the various segments of a complex
innovation chain that takes ideas from "mind to market".
India's current national innovation system is vast and
complex comprising of knowledge producers such as
science and technology institutions, academia, and
innovating individuals and knowledge users (e.g., industry-
production/services in the public and private sectors).
Councils and research structures, such as CSIR, ICAR, ICMR
and DRDO, that operate under various ministries cater to
different research areas distributed across the country.
A number of other publicly funded institutions undertake
research and technology development for industries such
as steel, oil and natural gas, renewable energy, coal, textiles,
railways, road transport, electronics and communication,
environment and forests, irrigation, amongst others. There
are also over 1200 privately or state-funded Scientific and
Industrial Research Organizations.
Among the many policy initiatives for Innovation in India,
an important and interesting Policy on “Risk Taking” is also
adequately addressing the inherent risk in innovation. To
this extent the Policy sates as follows “The policy accepts
risk as an integral part of a vibrant innovation system. The
policy emphasizes risk sharing by the government, which
is slated to "significantly increase private sector
investment in R&D and technology development" and
"new financing mechanisms would be created for investing
in enterprises without fear of failure" (Ministry of Science
and Technology, 2013).
India's greatest asset by far, its people, have already
demonstrated an aptitude for successful global
competitiveness by building world-leading companies.
With the broad-based fundamental conditions for national
competitiveness now falling into place, they could soon be
joined by a new generation.
The people of India, especially the young, crave
employment. There is a realization that, "to sustain rapid
growth and alleviate poverty, India needs to aggressively
harness its innovative potential, relying on innovation-led,
rapid, and inclusive growth to achieve economic and social
transformation" (Dutz, 2007). The innovative potential of
the young Indian population, if supported through an
effective innovation ecosystem, holds potential for
developing entrepreneurship and providing the growth
and job opportunities that India needs.
India is beginning to make a mark in the global Innovation
map and has been instrumental in bringing out path
breaking innovations both in Ground – Zero and in the Deep
Space, actually quite literally. From Tata Nano, the world's
most economical car on the road, to the Chandrayan, the
world's most economical rocket that is now orbiting Mars–
just demonstrates the enormous innovation and prudence
that have gone into these mega projects that show-cased
India's Innovation prowess to the world.
Innovation and entrepreneurship taking place in the
Education Space in India is humungous. Young technology
entrepreneurs straight out of college often believe that
they have not gained enough from their academic
programs due to sub optimal teaching. Many have
incubated technology powered businesses that can
transform teaching in India and provide students an
engaging learning experience.
The growth of the IT and ITES Industry in India is yet
another example of Entrepreneurial and Innovative
thinking that was instrumental in creating the now famed
300 million strong Indian middle-class. IT and ITES was
originally built on a cost-arbitrage plank moving on to a
transformational plank; today it is an inspirational example
of entrepreneurship and innovation mindset.
But more needs to be done. We are yet to have in India our
versions of Apple, Google, Microsoft, Rolls Royce,
Mckinsey, Sony, Boeing, Airbus and similar such innovative
minded global brands, each specialist in their own fields.
The reasons are plenty, right from colonial inheritance, to
the Education system, cultural past and many more. We
have long been a destination for other countries to sell
their goods and services and have their manufacturing
needs met out of here. But then we have also been a closed
economy relying heavily on central planning and restricted
imports till 1991 when Economic liberalization programs
brought back global opportunities and from then gradual
opening of markets to global competition forced Indian
companies to become innovative, adapt scientific
methods and global thinking to compete with the foreign
brands in the domestic markets.
We are still a nation of consumers and consume every bit of
products and services thrown at us from the Western
world and this has incidentally created a population pool
that not only wants more and better and faster, but now is
beginning to create products and services for the Indian
consumer based on their consumer experience. An
Amazon has helped create a Flipkart, Uber has inspired an
Ola, Walmart has inspired a Reliance, More and Spencers,
HaagenDaz has inspired an iBaco, Best buy has inspired a
Croma and similar such for the Indian consumers and
perhaps to the Indian Sub-continent.
The government of India has taken many initiatives
towards strengthening the innovation ecosystem, the
8
Policy Watch

9. most important of which are: i) the establishment of the
National Innovation Council, whose mandate is to
coordinate various innovation-related activities and ii) the
new Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2013,
which is intended to promote entrepreneurship and
science-led solutions for sustainable and inclusive growth.
The India Inclusive Innovation Fund is designed to
"combine innovation and dynamism of enterprises to solve
the problems of the bottom of the pyramid in India"
(National Innovation Council, 2014). The initial investment
of INR 500 crores (approximately $83 million USD) is
slated to expand 10 times. The government will contribute
20% of the fund, and the rest will come from financial
institutions, insurance companies, multilateral/bilateral
development agencies and Indian and global corporations.
The life of the fund is nine years, and it will focus on
healthcare, food and nutrition, agriculture, education
energy, financial inclusion and environment technology,
among other areas.
Here is a visual from Annual Global Innovation Index survey
from Global Innovation Index is co-published by Cornell
University, INSEAD, and the World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO, an agency of the United Nations) has
chosen India as an example of an innovation achiever in
Central and Southern Asia in the group of lower-middle-
income countries.
India has a large, demographically diverse population, with
many young people seeking employment. The country is
on a path to growth, but the rate of growth has been slow.
There has been a substantial thrust toward science,
technology, and innovation in past 20 years, and many
initiatives have been undertaken in that direction.
However, the investments in science, technology and
innovation are not yet translating into the desired reality.
Realizing that the innovation-led entrepreneurship
development holds promise for growth, the government
has taken major policy initiatives with a strong innovation
agenda.
Bibliography
1. The Government of India's Role in Promoting
Innovation through Policy Initiatives for
Entrepreneurship Development – Ravindra
Abayankar
2. Dutz, M. A. 2007. Unleashing India's Innovation:
Towards Sustainable and Inclusive Growth.
Washington, DC: The World Bank.
3. www.Globalinnovationindex.org
4. www.makeinindia.com
5. http://www.indiainnovates.in/index.aspx
9
Policy Watch

10. D
esign is extremely important for the future of our
nation. Design contributes significantly to our
culture, environment and economy.
The India Design Report brought out by Confederation of
Indian Industry, hopes to highlight the growing economic
value of this dynamic sector, and its increased relevance to
companies from all industries–whether consumer, retail,
services, manufacturing, real estate, utilities or more. It
also seeks to capture the emerging nature of design as a
profession in India today.
This report presents the results of an in-depth online
survey conducted between January and April 2014 and
later during September and October 2015 to gain
qualitative and quantitative insights into the Indian design
industry. Responses were solicited by emailing invitations
to CII's database of design professionals and posting
survey links on different Facebook groups of designers.
There were multiple questionnaires, tailored to the
following respondent types:
• Design Business (design entrepreneurs who have
started their own design studios)
• Businesses Using Design (a team located within a
manufacturing/services company)
• Design Education (administrative members of design
schools)
• Geographical Spread: India's design hubs are clustered
around its largest commercial cities : Mumbai, New
Delhi & NCR and Bengaluru. Equally, Pune and
Ahmedabad are important design hubs. These cities
are home to a large number of freelance designers as
well as design businesses who have established
independent studios. The design revolution is fast
spreading to smaller towns as well.
• Disciplines: The most popular disciplines for young
design practitioners include Visual Communications
Design, Product/Industrial Design and New Media
Design. Most designers surveyed worked in the area of
communications or product/industrial design (60%
and 61%respectively). Most in-house design teams or
design businesses are multi-disciplinary in nature.
Design
Key Survey Findings
10
Design – A Growing Economic Sector

11. Numbers Speak
Courses in Interaction Design (design of interactions
between humans and computers) and other emerging
design disciplines are increasingly gaining popularity.
• Industries Served: Manufacturing industry is the
biggest design user, closely followed by consumer
goods and retail. Several of India's best-known
companies are investing significantly in design.
• Businesses Using Design: Businesses using design are
very optimistic of the role of design in their respective
enterprises. Most of them have in-house design teams
and also work with external design agencies. The role of
design in these organizations is moving from being an
aesthetic driven activity to becoming a strategy tool.
• Design Entrepreneurship: The survey saw large
participation from independent design businesses and
freelancers. These young, dynamic firms often work
with companies much larger than themselves, driving
design and innovation. 54% of design businesses
reported annual revenues between Rs 10 lakhs to Rs 5
crores and 53% of design entrepreneurs work for
clients outside India.
• Growth Prospects: Respondents are uniformly
optimistic about the future, with an overwhelming
majority of respondents saying that average project
value, number of clients and financial performance
have increased over the previous year. Nearly all are
likely to hire new staff. Most businesses using design
have expressed that in the coming years they will be
increasing the budget for design and hiring new talent
as well.
• Education and Training: Design is becoming a much
sought after profession. The number of design
institutions has grown tremendously over the past few
years and continues to grow. The design education
institutes have reported that they expect to see a growth
in enrolments. It is still a very disorganized sector and
definition of design in the name of the course could be
questionable in many cases.
• Government Support: The National Institute of Design has
been declared as an institution of national importance by
the Government of India by virtue of National Institute of
Design Act, 2013. This is a significant recognition of design
by the Government of India. The Government's own usage
of design has increased as demonstrated by some
important projects listed in this report. The government-
backed MSME Design Clinic scheme is another innovative,
new public-private partnership scheme that is helpful in
spreading awareness of design to small enterprises.
Despite all the opportunities that the design industry is
throwing open, it faces a set of its own challenges.
These include:
• Limited awareness of the value of design amongst
Indian industry,
• Intellectual property infringement
• Quality of design education
• An extremely fragmented sector, composed of
hundreds of small enterprises
• Scalability, which is vital for greater visibility and
impact, remains a challenge to be dealt with
The CII India Design Report, 2015 has demonstrated that
the overall design scenario in India is very positive. Many
companies are using design, the number of design
consultancies has grown and number of design schools
multiplied. Many companies are seeking to use design and
design thinking strategically. Design capability and
excellence is not an issue. India is brimming with it. What is
needed is to channelize this extraordinary resource in
meeting national goals. It is in this positive environment
that the next agenda needs to be set.
The Governments in European Union Nations and several
Asian countries have understood the importance of
design. They have adopted several programmes of design
support. The Government of India could take a cue from
these immensely successful initiatives and integrate
design in its mission and objectives such as Make in India,
Digital India and Smart Cities.
The Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi said
in his speech during the launch of Digital India Week “Make
in India is important but Design in India is equally
important”. Though this statement was made in the specific
context of Digital India, it really reverberates in all sectors.
The objectives of the national design policy could only be
met through equal contribution of business, design
profession and the government. An effective working
relationship between the government and the design
stakeholders is critical for the success of establishment of
design at the core of national development. Design by
itself is a small entity with its stakeholders having little
resources to create national impact. Government
assistance thus becomes essential. A new model centered
on Government—pull, and the design stakeholder — push
could be a solution. The Government could initiate funding
backed programmes, which can be carried forward by
Design stakeholders. The India Design Council can steward
this process.
The Confederation of Indian Industry, which has incessantly
worked to promote design over the last 15 years, could
provide the organizational and promotional support.
Enabled through Government assistance, under the aegis of
the India Design Council, CII would help in establishing and
enabling of design infrastructure and strategies.
11
Design - The Next Agenda

13. W
hile entrepreneurship and start-ups may be
generally understood as scouting for angel
investments and going through multiple rounds of
funding, a recent CII Survey conducted has yielded
surprising results. Out of the 132 start-ups surveyed, a
record 100% reported seeking mentoring support in one
form or the other as the most critical input for their
entrepreneurial journey. 102 out of the total start-ups
surveyed saw funding as another crucial ingredient and 69
start ups (52%) or half reported seeking industry
procurement connect.
The data provides insights into the start-up space where
young, tech-savvy, ambitious Indians having entrepreneurial
dreams are feeling the sheer need of having some kind of
continuous mentoring. The demographic profile of these
founders varies from college students to university
professors to researchers working in government and
private labs to professionals making their second innings, to
early stage start-ups to entrepreneurs in semi-rural areas.
These entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs are
actively looking to get connected with experienced
industry professionals or senior serial entrepreneurs to
help them increase the chances of success of the business
venture. Entrepreneurs reported that they needed
guidance from an experienced hand who could mentor
them on various aspects such as developing the business
plan, understanding the market, creating a team,
marketing the product or service, fund raising, supply
chain and logistics, etc.
However, when asked if they could specify who they would
like to be mentored by, most respondents could not state
in clear terms who their potential mentor could be. This
highlights the current scenario that is characterised by a
yawning gap between the start-up and the mentorship
ecosystem that needs to be filled. It is the identification of
this potential mentor that can make a significant difference
to the very first step towards entrepreneurship.
Approaching this domain with half-baked information or
too much but unstructured information is akin to trying to
navigate a dark wood with no source of light.
A Start-up Ecosystem comprises entrepreneurs, different
kinds of financial and non-financial support such as debt
finance, equity investments and grants, and non-financial
support including incubation, acceleration support,
mentoring and technical experts. It also includes
government policies and programmes relevant to start-ups,
academia and other organisations and firms that in different
ways interact with or support start-ups. (Sonne, Lina. (2015).
A Snapshot of India's Start-Up Ecosystem. CII and Okapi).
Having the right mentor with rich and diverse
entrepreneurial experience and a perspective informed by
it has its own unique advantages. The mentor can, not only
help the mentee unknot the complexities of “starting-up”,
but unlike an incubator or accelerator, also advise them on
forging the right work-life balance. A mentor is someone
who brings with them that human element that can both
help identify as well as overcome the pain-points
entrepreneurs may face. These could range from
navigating the bureaucratic red tape of incorporating a
company and getting licences and registration certificates,
go-to market strategy, scaling up or entering new
geographic areas, building a brand to creating a team and
planning for growth.
Given this need, the incubators and accelerators are
increasingly tying up with mentors too. According to a
Nasscom report on digital start-ups, of the approximately
110 incubators and accelerators about 90 incubators are
supported by the Department for Science and Technology
(DST). Many of them have seed funds, tie-ups with
technical services, as well as mentors. An interesting
recent incubator initiative is the incubator Zone Startups
hosted at the Bombay Stock Exchange giving in cubatees
an easy access to good quality mentors.
A significant advantage of mentoring is that a mentor
brings on board not just his time, skills and wisdom but also
leverages the strength of his network of business
associates and professionals across different domains.
Another invaluable stratum of support often comprises
guidance on government policies, IP & trademarks, legal
and regulatory processes, partnerships, among others.
Innovation &
entrepreneurship
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
NumberofStartup
Total Startup132 Mentoring132
Funding 102
Industry Procurement69
Results of CII Startups Survey
13
Making a case for Mentoring
Numbers Speak

14. N
ational Design Policy is a key enabler and
contributor to the design movement in the
country. We have come a long way, but still have
a long way to go before we become a 'design enabled'
India. 'Now' is the time to take the quantum leap. Initiatives
like 'Make in India' has got the world looking at India
seriously. With investments flowing in, it is important to
make sure that we become a creative manufacturer
rather than a factory to the world. Value addition
through Design is the only way. Initiatives like skill
development, empowerment of SME’s has gained
Design-
The key enabler in
National development
momentum in the last few years and if this is taken to
the next level, we will surely head towards the direction
of being one amongst the best, in terms of design
leadership.
I believe the three key focus areas which will catapult
India to the next realm of design are : Democratisation
of Design, Convergence of Design and Technology, and
Sustainable Design.
Design for everyone, through ‘affordable design for the
masses’ is to really democratise the power of design
and transform the life of a common man. It is when
design really moves beyond the ‘aesthetics’ and
‘functional’ to the arena of ‘experience’ the true worth
of design is felt. And this can be achieved through the
fusion of design with technology. Sustainable design is
perhaps the most important facet of design today to
build a better future.
In order to build a design enabled India there is a need
for creative leadership in Government, Industry, Policy
Makers and Education Institutions. Public spaces,
infrastructure and mobility all these beg for design
thinking & solutions. Creation of national level design
consciousness will help in ensuring integration of
design in the planning process for national
development. Good design leads to economic progress.
AVP & Head Design & Innovation
Titan Company Limited
Revathi Kant
14
Design

15. Sonia Manchanda
Founder & Creative Chief
SPREAD
Designing India-
A wider view of design
I
t's not enough to make design intrinsic to manufacturing
or to believe that we must design in India and make for
the world. When what we collectively should really be
aspiring for and working tirelessly at is “Designing India”.
The Government, its Ministries and functionaries, the States
and industry, the people and more - an open, progressive
and creative partnership is needed, for the massive task of
Designing India, for its next generation of growth, for its
young population, while also demonstrating India's unique
evolution as an independent nation, to the world.
This incredibly wide and amazing opportunity can be
embraced by design. Only by bringing design to stage zero,
to create a wider, more expansive view, where people are not
a constraint, but the driving force; and a deep understanding
of their needs and aspirations takes center stage. Design can
then be the catalyst – to imagine future possibilities while
grappling with complexity, celebrating diversity while
integrating multiple perspectives, resolving conflicts
beautifully to develop powerful strategies and scenarios.
User centered design thinking has to be core to policy
development, planning new cities and to all thinking, be it with
regard to emerging cultures or to the future of agriculture.
Just an example – Denmark innovates across agencies and
has set up what they call 'Mind Lab' to innovate and
collaborate across agencies and industry.
Design is functionality and aesthetics in the context of
products or product design but that's not all it is – it is
sustainable strategies and business models that benefit
the environment, the user, the manufacturer and ultimately
the nation. Design is infrastructure, interiors and spaces
with craft and aesthetics integrated but before that it has
to be experiences that we conceptualize, for people, giving
heed to their many different needs and challenges and
thinking of designing/redesigning behaviours.
Design is brand, communication and connection – but
before that it is the design of strategy, of a plan and of
movements that are self sustainable, that create the right
churn, to transform people and the nation altogether.
Design is not packaging, it is mindfulness, it is the soul that
becomes manifested as mind and body. We really must
unlock our understanding of design to unleash our
immense potential as a nation. Our deep roots need new
seeds of ideas with a lot of sunshine and nurturing. For this,
we will have to let go of a narrow view of design.
Sectoral Round Up
Not too long ago, we had just one premier institution of
design (NID) in India and very little understanding of the
application or the immense potential of this strange
discipline and practice. One that bridges science and art,
functionality and aesthetics, thought and craft. I had the
privilege to live, learn and grow at the National Institute of
Design, where progressive inclusive thinking and the
conceptualization of sustainable strategies were given as
much weightage as skill and craft. Rootedness and
heritage were as important as integration and
competitiveness within the global context. While I
specialized in Visual Communications and also learnt the
art of film-making - I quite naturally developed a wider
view of design. Imbibed mostly in the foundation year
while learning about the design process, I became very
excited about the possibility of transformation offered by
design, a clearly holistic view vs a reductionist approach.
As a practitioner, over the years, I have witnessed a silent
and slow spread of the idea of design in our nation. In the
last three to five years, we have 'more' design. More
institutions, more design practitioners, more design
students, design integrated as a department at premier
institutes, many more large corporations familiar with the
notion of design thinking and more visibility through
design events.
I would like to argue that more than 'more design', we must
have more mindfulness of design. As design's chances of
success grow exponentially when it is deployed first as a
way of understanding and thinking as well as a method and
strategy before it is employed as a skill and craft.
In the here and now, some creative leaders have integrated
design within business for scale and impact and are
reaping the benefits, some visionaries in the public space
have begun to think in a user centric way. However, in our
sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic, when we
take a look around, clearly there are enough remaining
challenges and opportunities!
To apply design to a very wide set of problems and
contexts, we need to make a fundamental shift and bring
design to the center, thinking around people, creating new
possibilities, expanding the potential for both purpose and
profit while Designing India.
15

16. T
oday 'Innovation' is a much used and abused term,
being applied to every small incremental feature or
evolutionary design tweak that is made. In reality
revolutionary innovation is more elusive and needs
sustained commitment to get people and systems to
deliver on a regular basis. And a compelling innovation is in
fact a new method or an idea that is substantially
transformative in every way…technology, use, appeal,
endurance, reach, value and scalability!
There is an established myth that outsiders such as
management consultants, 'rock-star'designers, executive
coaches and the like are essential to kick-start innovation
within organisations. Though these professionals may help
initiate or catalyze the process by bringing a fresh
perspective, a lasting competency to innovate needs to
emerge from within. Ultimately, innovation practices are
not knee-jerk responses to crises but an established way of
doing things across the board and for the long-term.
Some of the key attributes of an innovation-ecosystem are:
Intent
Innovation only comes to those who really want it bad
enough and those who get to the core of what's preventing
great ideas from emerging. Very often the root cause of
poor outcomes lies beyond R&D departments; in
corporate policies, investment priorities, fear of failure,
poorly designed incentives and organizational structures.
An honest assessment of what's stifling new ideas is a
great place to begin. Optimism, defining a common
purpose and setting achievable goals help create the right
state of mind, define intent and embark upon a future
trajectory.
Culture
Taking inspiration from “The Cultural Lives of Whales and
Dolphins” by Hal Whitehead of Dalhousie University, Nova
Scotia, as well as Luke Rendell of the University of St
Andrews, Scotland, we can extend the five distinctive
features of 'Culture' to define what sustains a creative
environment:
1. A characteristic Technology or the ability to assimilate
new technology seamlessly
2. Teaching and Learning to ensure that essential skills
are fostered and perpetuated as a matter of course
3. A moral component, a unique way of doing things and
a clear understanding of what is the “right” thing to do
4. An acquired, not innate, distinction between insiders
and outsiders which creates a sense of belonging and
fosters Teamwork and Collaboration
5. A cumulative character that builds up over time
These attributes together allow individuals in a group to do
things that they would not be able to achieve by
themselves. Innovative teams are no different. Ultimately
innovation is born out of a culture that fosters questioning
and reinvention; a culture that is free of command & control
structures that can potentially obstruct the diffusion of
challenging thoughts; an open and inclusive culture that
puts a premium on disruptive ideas that may potentially
threaten the status quo. Failure is seen as an important
stepping stone to an eventual success and ideas are
developed tenaciously and tested iteratively.
A Human Perspective
Empathizing with end users, feeling their problems,
understanding their dreams & aspirations and translating
this awareness into new opportunities to create form the
foundation of successful innovations. Imagining new
products and services around the needs (including
unarticulated or unmet ones) of people is at the core of
most great ideas.
Simplicity
The quest for the most 'essential' and cost effective
solutions can open up a new world of possibilities. New
materials and new manufacturing processes can help
achieve the most elegant outcomes where complexity is
either minimized or in many cases concealed from the end
user's viewpoint.
Ecology
The looming environmental catastrophe is another
opportunity to reinvent. India has a culture of thrift, repair,
reuse and recycling which can be deployed to see every
kind of waste as a valuable resource and design
opportunity. We need to question established patterns of
consumption that have led to the crisis in the first place
and look at more sustainable approaches that better suit
our situation. This can catalyze some amazing ideas and
innovations.
Our Context
Indians have always managed to do more with less with the
application of creativity – At the same time we continue to
grapple with the challenges of extreme poverty, inequality,
hunger, healthcare, education, habitat, governance and a
large number of unaddressed needs – With the right
motivation all these can be seen as a massive opportunity
to create inspired business models and new products to
serve the masses, and in the process, generate, distribute
and share wealth in a responsible and equitable manner.
Sectoral Round Up
Unlocking an
Innovation Toolkit for
India
Amit Krishn Gulati
Founder & Director, Incubis
Consultants (India) PL
16

17. Interestingly, innovations born out of the crucible of our
chaotic context riddled with such demanding
contradictions and resource constraints can be powerful,
uniquely robust and very often, globally relevant.
Design Thinking!
All these ideas together coalesce into Design Thinking - a
potent way to harness and leverage the Innovation Toolkit.
Design Thinking is a proven way to discover and solve
problems by defining them a fresh and viewing them as
new and exciting opportunities.
The Design Process begins with a shift in perspective or
questioning the basis of what needs to be designed – For
instance, instead of designing a “chair” one may see the
opportunity as designing a “device that gives comfort
while seated” or redefining a “ladder” as a “mechanism to
increase one's reach” or to simply “levitate” –
(Re)interpreting the problem or task in the most open-
ended manner frees the mind from established
conventions and stereotypes and makes space for a
creative flight.
The next step is to brainstorm the widest set of concepts
without any pre-conceived notions or premature
judgment. Of course, many of these ideas would be
derived from our empathy with end users or
understanding of the situation, however, constraints and
technical filters are applied only once a large number of
ideas are out there…. nothing is too crazy or “impossible”
to become a contender!
After short-listing the best ideas from a diverse pool, a
process of intensive and iterative refinement begins where
something nebulous is transformed into a tangible product
or a process that can be prototyped, tested and perfected.
As in all things, success in design only comes with
sufficient practice and it's never too late to start!
O
ur Honorable Prime Minister's clarion call for “Make
in India” has caught the attention of the world, and
“Design in India” is an integral part of the “Make in
India” Programme. Design in India has come a long way in
last 2 decades or so. I remember the days when finding an
Industrial Designer with relevant skills was a challenging
task. Today young Indian designers are churning some really
cool products and striving to compete globally.
In Automotive industry itself one can see a big transformation
in the R&D activities. These have gone from being just
engineering focused, to well synergized setups, where
Design plays a key role. Our recently launched Compact SUV
Vitara Brezza stands testimony to this maturity.
Having said this, I believe that the real journey for Indian
Design has just begun. It has a long but exciting road
ahead. In my opinion, some areas that will be crucial for
development of Automotive Design in India would be:
1. Developing Design Skills Aligned to Future Industry
Requirements:
• Today, we are witnessing an explosion of sorts, in the
extent of exposure that customers are getting. Their
expectations are rising with every passing day and
what was acceptable yesterday, may not even feature
in their consideration set today.
• Global companies are offering their latest products in
India, putting a huge pressure on local players. In this
race for survival, companies in India have no other
option but to strengthen their R&D efforts. And for
that the most important ingredient is having
manpower with the requisite skills.
• Similar challenges are also highlighted in the
Automotive Mission Plan 2026. We need to strengthen
the Indian Auto Industry by focusing on indigenous
R&D efforts.
• Today there are a good number of Design schools in
India but majority of young designers entering the
Industry, have to undergo extensive training and
mentoring before they actually deliver. This scenario is
not productive where Time to Market is crucial.
• We need to bridge the gap in Industry expectations vs
academic requirements. There is need for an open
dialogue between the two stakeholders to strengthen
the partnership and create a “Win-Win” situation.
• There is also a need to formulate a focused strategy for
Industrial Design under the umbrella of the “Skill India”
initiative of Government.
2. Mobility for Smart Cities
• In the latest concept of Smart cities initiated by the
Ministry of Urban Development, efficient urban
mobility and public transport are clearly highlighted
as core infrastructure elements.
• The key challenge is to provide a reasonably
comfortable and safe transport solution from their
Home to work locations or “the last mile connectivity”
• In well developed economies we find many innovative
mobility solutions, but the same models may not work
in India. So, Indian Designers will have to challenge
themselves to think beyond the current norms and
find innovative solutions.
• As this concept is still in the early stages, time-wise it is
perfect to build synergies between Town Planners,
Architects and Designers.
Sectoral Round Up
C V Raman
Executive Director (Engineering)
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.
Design in India –
For the World
17

18. 3. Focus on Newer Technologies
• Next generation power train technologies such as
Hybrids and EV's are not a distant dream anymore.
• This change in technology is a huge opportunity
for Designers to re-write some old rules and pen
a new lease of life for Mobility solutions. Many of
these technologies have totally new packaging
requirements. It would be exciting to see how
designers maximize the Human Space in these
machines.
• One other challenge for Designers will be “How to
visually communicate to users that these are cleaner
cars”.
Many initiatives are being undertaken in parallel, but I
believe that Industry, Academia and Government need to
have a holistic approach and prepare an integrated
strategy and policy taking into consideration all
stakeholders. If we are able to make concerted efforts in
this direction, the day is not far, when designers in India will
be fulfilling the dreams of billions of customers across the
world through innovative designs.
A
'dosa' bought from a street-side stall at Rs 30,
becomes a Rs 60 meal in a multi-cuisine Udipi and
a Rs 180 engagement at a South Indian theme
restaurant where the ambience, the smells, the dress of the
serving staff, the music etc. all enhance the experience
during consumption.
People are willing to pay differentially when they move
from accessing a product to being immersed in an
experience – with the basic commodity being consumed
remaining nearly the same, but getting layered through a
sensorial and emotional engagement to magnify the
experience.
Strong indicators are becoming evident in today's time
–while seemingly unconnected these are driving the
increasing challenges being faced by businesses:
• The ability to differentiate goods and services is
getting more and more difficult – with what was a
differentiator till yesterday becoming a hygiene factor.
In this very crowded and competitive landscape it is
becoming difficult for companies to stand out with
unique value propositions.
• With increasing disposable incomes coupled to
impulse consumption (also driven by one's ability to
spend without feeling guilty) - the customer is willing
to pay a premium if they connect with the value
proposition beyond the function.
• Technology is creating newer opportunities of
interfacing and transacting for companies to engage
with their customers – digitisation, virtual &
augmented reality etc.
• People are gradually preferring topay for outcomes –
not necessarily the means – thereby influencing both
the ownership as well as consumption models for
example the Ola and Uber models.
• An asset owner (vehicle, room, knowledge, capital) is
looking at opportunities to link up via enabling
platforms to monetise the asset – thereby throwing
conventional business models and competitive
advantages in disarray. E.g. Airbnb, Crowd funding,
Uber etc.
With these changes we are beginning to see the green
shoots of the 'Experience Economy', in which products
and services will become a minimum offering, and people
will pay for their experiences. This then creates an
opportunity for Design to help stage these experiences by
bringing Design Thinking to the fore as a methodology –
a n d u s e d n o t o n l y by D e s i g n e r s b u t eve r y
function/process including strategy, route to market,
service etc. This will also drive companies to reconsider
what their basic value proposition to the customer is – and
those that do not ask this question and reaffirm its connect
with evolving consumer needs / consumption trends –
may perish. A bicycle maker has a choice to connect with
the mobility needs, the wellness needs and/or the
entertainment requirements of their consumers and
package and pitch accordingly.
Companies have started exploring different routes to
create these experiences and hence opportunities to
premiumise their offerings - from storytelling to
gamification to personalisation and mass customisation –
all of which is co-created with the consumer for the highest
gratification.
Sectoral Round Up
Pankaj Jhunja
General Manager Design
Tata Motors
Design for
the Experience
Economy
18

19. Not only do companies need to take this on board on the
offerings they take to market, but more importantly they
need to make structural changes at the backend that will
facilitate it. These experiences will be created through the
convergence of multiple design, development and
business disciplines working seamlessly across domains
with people who have this sensitivity and ability.
Boundaries between hardware, software and content will
need to be diffused to create this unified interface.
Companies will need to create a working environment
(organisation, process, decision making, governance etc.)
that allows this to happen.
Institutes of learning need to take this onboard to allow
cross pollination of skills and sensibilities rather than
developing product designers, graphic designers, interior
designers, engineering designers, marketing professionals
etc. Education would need to move from teaching basic
skills, processes and tools to students learning to be more
compassionate, caring and empathetic.
There is a great opportunity and need for Indian Design to
take this on board – in order to address the needs of the
aware, aspirational, demanding and diverse consumer and
create strong contextual (may be local) offerings.
This will need to reflect in policy, be it the National Design
policy, the Education policy, the revenue guidelines on
taxation (today experience design is clubbed with
services) to create a framework that catalyses the growth
in this direction.
As early as 2004 when speaking to New York times after
taking over as head of General Motors, Bob Lutz defined
their business as:
Its more right brain…..I see us being in the art business. Art,
entertainment and mobile sculpture, which coincidentally
also happens to provide transportation.
I
n the good old cycle rickshaw days, especially in small
towns and less developed cities, the rickshaw could be
hailed almost from the doorstep and would always drop
one back at the doorstep. Then came the auto rickshaws
and then the e-rickshaws. Though a slightly more efficient
means of transport than the cycle rickshaw, these took
away the doorstep convenience. Mostly we cannot hail
them from our doorstep and very often they do not drop
the passenger at the doorstep either.
Are auto/e-rickshaws the best solution for India's last mile
connectivity needs then?
Apart from the inconvenience of hailing these, the rising
population of the senior citizens and the increasingly mobile
younger generation make these a less attractive option. The
differently abled too aspire for an inclusive public system.
On the supply side, with cities expanding and aspirations
of our young population on the rise, few would like to drive
an auto/e-rickshaws. They may demand more respectable
jobs. With smartness being introduced in the cities, the
chaos created by these modes of transport may have to be
dispensed with.
Given the new scenario that is building up what we need is
an ably managed last mile transport that is caring, that is
smart, that does not pollute, that works on renewable
energy and so on. With crowded cities being a norm a high
speed last mile transport will not serve our purpose. What
we need then is a no frill, small footed (read footprint)
electric/solar transport that moves around slowly in a
defined 'cell'. A CELL could be a locality which is
connected by the metro and public buses; it is bounded or
defined by a name and has its own nervous system (read
by lanes and labyrinths) and the last mile transport needs
to cover each of these by lanes.
Last mile transportation will mitigate several problems
related to chaos on roads, crowded parking spaces and
pollution. We cannot blindly follow the benchmarks of
other countries. It is imperative to understand that Indian
demography and behavioural patterns are unique, with
very complex population dynamics. With the development
of smart cities gaining momentum, it is an opportune time
to develop our own last mile system that works
consistently. We have to create a no-frill, frugal design that
enhances our road scape and is kind to our environment
and people.
A very thoughtful user centric design, that caters to
the stereotypes and behavioural patterns of our
Sectoral Round Up
Anuj Prasad
Director
Desmania
A Smart Last
Mile for Smart
Cities
An example of a cell & a visualisa on of last
19

20. target audience (mainly seniors, children and the
differently abled), needs to be created. With a designated
narrow path it should constantly be on the move. The ideal
choice would be an electric vehicle with solar charging and
the capacity to accommodate at least 8-10 adults.
An App based connected vehicle with several well
articulated smart features would be best suited to meet
the mobility needs and the aspirations of our people.
It would be a good idea to develop a template for dry run
during which the gaps can be plugged and the design
further refined. Once the system is perfected, it could be
replicated across cities. To cater to the unique
requirements of regions, small/big cities, one can follow
the 80/20 principle, where 80% of the design is fixed and
20% is open for customisation.
A recent survey has revealed that people rate transport as
the top issue for smart cities. An efficient transport system
will be the real identifier of a smart city. An effective last
mile connectivity system will demonstrate the empathy of
the government towards people's needs and solve several
problems.
A
Designer's task is always to find simple, honest
answers. Honesty, integrity and love for life are
key to delivering great work of design. The field of
design has become too specialised and borders between
different disciplines must be opened. Designers must
assimilate with the scientists' brain, the poet's heart and
painter's vision.
Design is about building connections. I strive consistently
to align the creative process with business and the key to
innovation lies in understanding consumer experience. The
designer of today is involved with designing experiences
not just looks and appearances. Today design is about
teamwork. Designers want to believe that design can
transform the world, and that the designer leads the
process of change. However, my take on this is that design
plays a modest yet important role.
Design is like glue, it is the soul of the team, design gives
form to a vision that seeks to apply creativity to challenges
of our age, namely digital technology and information. As
a designer I do not build products but I build relationships –
good design comes through the observation and
understanding of daily life and environment. Design
although a discovery of an individual is always for others.
Empathy is very important in the act of designing.
I believe that what should concern us, is how the expressive
need and energy so delicately enshrined in the culture, can
now find a new vehicle for design. What kind of
environment can we build? What do we want to preserve
and how and for whom do we preserve it? What is
replacing that which must go? Our concerns must be to ask
consistently and persistently, from here to where? The
vision should be the symbolic relationship with our times
and should be directed towards a positive change for
society and world at large. Change comes from
encounters, conversations and dialogues of people.
Together in this journey we are deeply engaged with the
new world… Let the new landscape for design education
blossom from observing the real world and bring about the
“flowering of goodness” in the lives of millions.
D
esign today is playing an increasingly important
role globally, especially with increase in new
technologies and availability of design tools.
When it comes to India, there has been a significant
increase in the awareness amongst organizations on how
design can help in improving the top- line results, and how
brands can connect emotionally with consumers.
Companies today have started to invest in design.
“Democratization of Design is when design is practiced by
everyone, not just designers. This has created a new
awareness about design. You need to leverage the power
of design and make it accessible to everyone. Be it
policymakers or corporate/design houses everyone needs
to spread the word that design is not just for designers, but
it can be practiced by everybody.”
Since the percentage of people involved in design are
relatively less compared to other disciplines in India, the
active involvement of designers contributing significantly
in public policy matters is also less. Democratization of
design (design awareness by non-designers) from a policy
Sectoral Round Up
Narendra Ghate
Chief Designer
Service Design, Tata Elxsi
Democratization of
Design & Effective
Deployment of
Government Policies
20
Suresh Sethi
Global Design Director for
Air & Water / Vice President
Design South Asia, Whirlpool
Design - All About
Building Connections

21. I
nnovation starts and ends in the society. The innovator
finds issues and opportunities in the society to resolve
or fulfil, develop solutions and offerings to resolve the
issues, and delivers these to the society. Knowledge of
society, therefore, is a significant part of the repertoire that
an innovator must have.
Innovation develops, integrates and uses technology to
find and solve problems and deliver solutions. It comes
from multiple domains. Technology is a way of achieving
an effect (e.g. a material with piezo- electric property),
that comes from a variety of domains e.g. semiotic,
engineering, usability, etc.
Innovation must satisfy all stakeholders in the product’s
lifecycle. There must be incentive for every provider to
implement its phases of the lifecycle (manufacture, deliver,
service and retire the product), and users must be ready to
pay for these, i.e. it must be an economic win-win for
providers and users.
All these must happen within constraints of the fragile
ecology of the earth-system. Resources are finite, and
ecology and humans are vulnerable, while the population
grows with expanding needs. These conflicting elements
must be balanced while remembering that every process
in a product’s lifecycle can variously impact resource
availability, health of the ecosystem and health of the
human population.
Innovation must therefore integrate knowledge of the
society, economy, ecology and technology so as to identify
significant needs in the society, integrate technology to
develop offerings that are economically and societally
beneficial while being ecologically benign, and deliver
these to the society.
To fulfil the needs, innovation may be required in one or a
combination of these areas: product, process, services,
business, and policy. What are the critical pieces of
knowledge that our innovators must be trained in, so that
they can innovate in an economically, ecologically and
socially sustainable manner?
The key to this is design. Adapting Herbert Simon’s
definition, we define a design as “a plan for intervention
which, when implemented, is intended to change an
undesirable situation into a (less un-) desirable one.
Designing is the process of identifying these situations as
well as developing designs to support the transition”.
Sectoral Round Up
level will be the key to give the required thrust for bringing
about a change in the macro-level.
One example which gives an idea of how we could deploy
design thinking at a policy level could be – incorporating
design in government tenders. There are thousands of
government tenders that go out every day. A significant
portion of it could have the elements of design included as
scope of work to allow stakeholders to give their project an
edge over others. It could be as simple as incorporating
design elements like branding, graphics, user interface
design, service design and process design. Initially it might
appear that the scope of work for design can be small in
terms of costs, but its impact will be significant and easily
seen in the long run.
Through incorporation of design requirements / elements in
government tenders will lead to more involvement from a
larger section of the society (involving both design agencies
& non-designers). This will in turn help to build a large talent
pool and more participation in public policy matters.
At Tata Elxsi we have already witnessed the positive
impact of design in mass transit systems where 'signage
design' is being insisted as a special delivery. As a
practitioner of design, I think we should strive to add these
design line items in government tenders to witness a
positive change in the system.
Figure 1: Design schools in India typically focus on Product innovation: Little on production/business
Amaresh Chakrabarti
Professor & Chairperson
Centre for Product Design &
Manufacturing, Indian Institute
of Science, Bangalore, India
Design in Innovation:
How Should We
Train Future Innovators?
Innovation Matrix
Product
Innovation
Production
Innovation
Service
Innovation
Business
Innovation
Science/Tech
Tools
Projects
Projects
Teaching/Projects
usability/semantics
Teaching/Projects
Teaching/ProjectsProcess
Thinking Teaching/Projects
21

22. Design is the engine of innovation. Based on our research,
the following pieces of knowledge are found to be crucial
for innovation, see the ‘Innovation Matrix’ in figure 1:
• Thinking: There is a generic mindset for innovation that
is need/problem/opportunity-centred, and follows a
style of thinking with a generic cycle of problem finding
and solving that can be applied for innovation across
multiple areas. In product design it is often called
design thinking.
• Systematic design process: No complex system is
developed without a detailed, systematic process; I
would not trust an aircraft designed with intuition
alone. This process has generic elements, as well as
specific ones that vary with the area of innovation and
system innovated.
• Science and technology: The complex and detailed
process above must utilize and integrate various pieces
of science and technology, i.e. building blocks, from a
variety of domains: semiotics, engineering, usability,
manufacturing, cost, organization, sustainability, and
so on.
• Tools: Many of these processes would be impossible,
hard, time-consuming or tedious to carry out without
supporting methods and tools. Imagine analysing
deflections of complex parts by combining hand
equations of forces and deflections for a million
elements!
Innovators need to be trained in all the above types of
knowledge, focusing on the specific areas of innovation of
interest, so that innovators can identify the right
opportunity, and develop in an efficient manner solutions
that are effective. However, in typical technical or design
institutions, innovation is mainly on the product,
occasionally on processes of manufacturing and rarely on
services or business.
To break free of this, understanding the whole lifecycle of
the product is crucial to identify opportunities for
innovation. Lifecycle thinking, therefore, is a key
innovation-enabler. Often the opportunity for innovation
lies in areas beyond the product. For a mature product,
differentiation may happen in how good the service is, and
not whether the product performance can be marginally
better. The opportunity may lie in reducing the lifecycle
cost of the product, rather than its initial cost. Without
lifecycle thinking, an innovator is imprisoned in the first
two areas of innovation only.
Finally, design involves both synthesis and analysis.
Synthesis is about diverging – exploring the multiple
possible ways of interpreting and fulfilling the need.
Analysis is about converging – evaluating and selecting
those that reflect or fulfil the need better. What is often
overlooked in training curriculum is the need to combine
both synthesis and analysis in the training for innovation.
Further, if the domains, that are typically considered
engineering (functionality, manufacturability, cost) and
non-engineering oriented (semiotics, usability,
sustainability), are juxtaposed against the activities of
synthesis and analysis, a ‘Design Matrix’ can be formed, see
Figure 2. Analysis of the Indian scenario, using this design
matrix reveals an interesting polarization.
Technical institutions seem to focus primarily on training
students in analyses of engineering aspects of products
and processes, with little emphasis on synthesis. In
contrast, design institutions train mainly on exploration of
non-engineering aspects, without much emphasis on
rigorous analyses of these aspects.
Let us conclude the article with a brief recipe for training
innovators in complex systems innovation:
• Cover all aspects in the Innovation and Design Matrices
in Figures 1-2. Train for both engineering and non-
engineering aspects, for both synthesis and analyses, in
all innovation areas.
• Include open-ended projects that involve both problem
finding and solving, all the way from developing
products/processes to developing services/business,
with implementable outcomes.
• Have implementation goals in projects, e.g. developing
and user-testing of working prototypes.
• Initiate programmes for research into design and
innovation; that focuses on understanding and
strengthening the knowledge of how to design and
innovate better, for better.
Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing (CPDM) at
the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore offers one
such programme, MDes, for graduate engineers and
architects. It also has an active research programme in
various aspects of design and innovation, the first formal
programme in India in this area.
Sectoral Round Up
Figure 2: Many technical school analysis-focused, on function/feasibility: little structured synthesis
Many Design school synthesis-focused, on usability/aesthetics: little structured analysis
Design Matrix
Analysis
Function
Feasibility
Usability
Aesthetics
GAP
GAP
Design Schools
Design Schools
GAP
GAP
Technical Schools
Technical Schools
Synthesis
22

23. Kris Gopalakrishnan
Chairman
CII Start-up Council 2016-17
Co-founder Infosys &
Chairman, Axilor Ventures
Innovation &
entrepreneurship
Sectoral Round Up
There has been a great impetus coming from
the Government on fast pacing the Start-up Growth in
India. This is an opportune time for the players in Indian
Start-up ecosystem to establish their roots more firmly on
the ground and build a sustainable future. Currently many
central ministries (MSDE, DIPP, DST, NITI, MSME etc.) have
proactively taken up the challenge to contribute to
building the overall entrepreneurial landscape, but a more
focused approach and better convergence of start-up
activity through a single ministry could work to the benefit
of all stakeholders. The states should also independently
put in place systems and processes to nurture state level
entrepreneurs as well as become competitive at the
national level.
As part of its efforts to make India a business-friendly
economy fuelled by innovation and technology, the
Government of India launched its flagship initiative Startup
India mission in January this year at a grand ceremony in
the capital. This initiative, which is aimed at encouraging
and supporting young citizens to become entrepreneurs,
will drive sustainable economic growth and generate large
scale employment opportunities by empowering start-ups
to grow through innovation and design.
According to the Action Plan announced earlier this year,
the initiative addresses all aspects of the start-up
ecosystem to accelerate the spread of the start-up
movement. The Action Plan comprises a range of
proposed schemes and incentives for entrepreneurs
enabling simplification of regulatory and compliance
procedures and hand holding of start-ups; funding
support and incentives; industry-academia partnership
and incubation.
In a bid to reduce the regulatory burden and keep
compliance costs low, start-ups will now be allowed to self-
certify compliance with nine labour and environment laws
through the start-up mobile app and portal. In addition, no
inspections will be conducted for a period of three years
upon incorporation of the company, except on receipt of
credible and verifiable complaint of violation.
A Start-up India Hub will be set up as a single point of contact
for the entire ecosystem to enable access to knowledge,
mentoring, financing, feasibility testing, business advisory,
marketing, technology commercialization, etc. through its
network of central and state governments, incubators, angel
networks, investors, banks, legal partners, universities and
R&D institutions.
The initiative includes an entire gamut of new services and
incentives such as legal support and fast-tracking patent
examination at lower costs, relaxed norms of public
procurement for start-ups, faster exit for start-ups in the
event of business failure. The Government will also
introduce a Fund of Funds with a corpus of Rs 10,000
crores for development and growth of innovation-led
enterprises and a Credit Guarantee Fund for innovators
from all sections of the society. To attract investments into
start-ups, there will be tax exemptions on capital gains
arising from sale of capital assets, in addition to income tax
exemptions to start-ups for three years.
The Union Cabinet has released the National IPR Policy
aimed at creating a conducive environment for new
innovations and research and development in the country.
According to the Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley, "the
aim is to create awareness about economic, social and
cultural benefits of IPRs among all sections of the society"
from college students to university professors to people in
the hinterland.
The National IPR Policy has been created with the overall
goal to increase IP for commercialization to fuel economic
growth in the country. It is a vision document that aims to
create and leverage collaborations between all forms of
(IP), concerned laws and agencies. It aims to establish an
institutional mechanism characterised by greater
transparency in IP administration for innovators and
entrepreneurs, both Indian and foreign, who are interested
in investing in India. The new policy also aims to adapt
global best practices to the Indian space.
According to a PIB notification, the Department of
Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), will be the nodal
department to coordinate, guide and oversee
implementation and future development of IPRs in India
and will regulate the work done by ministries and
government departments.
Last year, Industry and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sithara
manhad said that the National IPR Policy would create a
23
Democratization of Design &
Effective Deployment of
Government Policies
National Intellectual Property
Rights Policy Released
Government of India Launches
Startup India Mission

24. Rise in Investments for Social
Entrepreneurial Ventures
Sectoral Round Up
stable IPR framework for both domestic and foreign
innovators and entrepreneurs. She had said that “it will also
promote a holistic and conducive ecosystem to catalyse the
full potential of intellectual property for India's growth and
socio-cultural development while protecting public interest.”
Some of the stated objectives of the IPR Policy are:
IPR Awareness:1. To create public awareness about the
economic, social and cultural benefits of IPRs amongst
all sections of the society
Generation of IPRs:2. To stimulate the generation of IPRs
Legal and Legislative Framework:3. To have strong and
effective IPR laws, which balance the interests of rights
owners with larger public interest
Administration and Management:4. To modernize and
strengthen service-oriented IPR administration
Commercialization of IPRs:5. Get value for IPRs through
commercialization
Enforcement and Adjudication:6. To strengthen the
enforcement and adjudicatory mechanisms for
combating IPR infringements
Human Capital Development:7. To strengthen and
expand human resources, institutions and capacities
for teaching, training, research and skill building in IPRs
Under this policy, by 2017, the window for trademark
registration will be reduced to one month.
According to a recent report by Reuters there is a rise in
interest in social entrepreneurship ventures that generate
financial benefits among Silicon Valley investors. The report
quoted Global Impact Investing Network data according to
which impact investment” or investment in funds and
foundations that aim to generate both social and financial
returns, increased to $51.2 billion globally in 2015 from $10.6
billion in 2014. It has also projected a 16% rise in 2016.
The data yields important insights that explain this change.
One, investors are concerned with falling valuations of core
tech start-ups combined with an increasing trend to back
social start-ups working among rural communities,
especially in the developing world. The developing world
has been termed as “the next whitespace” by Silicon Valley
venture capitalists and investors, who strongly feel that 2.5
billion people in this part of the world hold a large potential
to adopt mobile technology that in itself presents
propositions for large returns. Bank of America, JP Morgan
Chase and other such large financial institutions are also
interested in investing in profitable start-ups in emerging
markets where a large proportion of the population lives in
the rural areas having little to no access to clean drinking
water, healthcare and financial services.
24

25. C
onfederation of Indian Industry (CII) has been
playing an active role in establishing 'Design' as a
core business component for Industry to enhance
its competitiveness.
CII's Design activities focus on areas such as policy
advocacy, knowledge development, stakeholder
engagement, capacity building, establishing new trends
and practices and recognizing excellence. These activities
benefit all stakeholders and contribute to the creation of a
healthy and vibrant design ecosystem in India.
The Government's national development agenda of Make
in India and reforms undertaken in such as like
infrastructure and indigenous manufacturing are rooted in
the understanding and acceptance of the key necessities
of the economy. In this period of transition our
manufacturing and service Industry need to board the
design bandwagon. Design is more than beautification; it is
the understanding of the market requirements and
delivering those requirements in a way that will ensure
commercial success.
CII Design realizes, that to obtain growth throughout
various sectors, a strong product development
performance by the manufacturing sector is necessary. In
the recent past several initiatives have been launched by
CII across India's Design Sector to forge sustainable
partnerships for leveraging design and achieving business
excellence for a lasting development of Indian
manufacturing.
CII Design's projects' cover every facet of Design ranging
from capacity building initiatives (workshops) to
knowledge development to stakeholder engagement
programmes that bring renewed impetus to the sector.
CII conducts regular workshops and seminars on Product
Development in partnership with premier academic
institution such as Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian
Institute of Science and National Institute of Design,
Design
25
Making it Happen by Design
Capacity Building Programmes –
Workshops and Seminars

26. CII Strides
emphasizing the necessity of research & design
intervention in manufacturing.
The organized inConclave on New Product Development
partnership with Department of Scientific & Industrial
Research, GoI and Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay, in
2015 in Mumbai; aimed to disseminate actionable
knowledge that MSMEs can use and apply immediately in
their workplace for conceiving new products and
improving existing products.
This year we are branding all or our capacity building
initiatives as which will include workshops,DCODE,
seminars, training modules, etc. focusing deeply on
advancing Indian manufacturing strength by design
intervention.
The first of the DCODE workshops are being organized in
partnership with the Centre for Product Design and
Manufacturing (CPDM), IISc Bangalore and World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Geneva. The
workshops focus on small and medium industry and are
intended to illustrate and showcase how research-
intensive innovation can transform new product
development. The first workshop in this series will be held
in Bangalore on July 27, 2016 and then will travel to Kolkata,
Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi and Pune.
For last 15 years, CII has been an active advocate of the
strategic value of design. In its ongoing pursuit to establish
design as a tool for national competitiveness, CII initiated
the “CII Design Excellence Awards” from the year 2011.
The awards are a true acknowledgement of design
excellence, innovation and originality of Indian Design
The CII Design Excellence Awards discover the new
paradigms of design in India, which answers the call of
making Indian industry and manufacturing more
competitive and innovative. The awards showcase the
emerging face of design in India and its newer
manifestations. The India Design Council endorses CII
Design Excellence Awards.
In the true CII fashion these awards follow a rigorous and
objective assessment process. The awards are given in four
main categories of Visual Communication, Industrial
Design, Interaction Design and Mobility Design and their
28 sub-categories. The awards are judged by an eminent
panel of distinguished experts from India and abroad.
Judging is based on clear criteria of design excellence
including Form and Function, Innovation, and design
success besides other parameters.
The CII NID Design Summit is India's most consistent and
prestigious design event happening for the last 15 years. It
is not just a conference – it is a 3600 Experience for all -
covering exhibitions, discussions, deliberations,
networking, events, activities, summits, talks, lectures,
seminars, contests and much more.
The summit has been bringing on one platform the best of
the Indian and International design thinkers, design policy
makers, designers, design educators and design users for
sharing and learning from each other. The summit initiates
new conversations across the domain practitioners and
experts, through interactive sessions and workshops,
which help articulate and combine definitive ideas and
methods to define solutions for today and tomorrow's
organizational needs.
th
The theme for 15 CII NID Design Summit 2015 'Make in
India: Making it Happen by Design' emphasised the role of
design in new market creation, go-to-market mechanisms
for new ideas, and creation of product-service eco-
systems. At the summit, a venerable line-up of global
experts delved in to crucial question of how business
organizations can evolve to become more design-centric.
They shared how strategic uses of design can not only
change the customer facing offerings of a company, but
also have ability to influence internal functions of an
organization.
th
The theme for the 16 CII NID Design Summit 2016 is
'Design: The New Now!' which is about the 'New' that is
unfolding now, the 'New' that is trailblazing. The summit
will delve in to the way one designs as well as the way one
thinks about design. The summit will explore how design is
being harnessed to create sustainable businesses as well
as sustainable futures. It will project new frameworks and
strategies that are being used by designers to help shape
new futures. The summit will unfurl strategies, models,
practices, transformations and the evolving relationship of
design with businesses, policymaking, planning and
communities. It would articulate key arguments within
the Indian and global context to encapsulate the
transformations in how we live, create and communicate.
Flagship Event –
CII NID Design Summit
26
Recognizing Excellence –
CII Design Excellence Awards

27. C
II Industrial Innovation Awards were instituted by
CII in 2014 to recognize and celebrate some of
India's most innovative companies across industry
segments. These premier awards seek to recognize and
honor the Indian industry's brightest stars and to identify
and declare the top 25 Innovative Organizations in India.
These awards aim to encourage and build a culture of
innovation and business growth and recognize innovation
excellence across the organisational spectrum. The awards
are open to any kind of process, product, service,
technological or any other innovations that have fuelled
growth through new ideas and approaches along with
tangible results in the preceding years.
The process for determining the top award and the list of
top 25 innovative companies use a rigorous framework
while allowing the flexibility for the applicant to be
assessed on their own merits. The unbiased and objective
assessment process measures the innovation and its
impact and assesses the innovation framework in an
organization looking for proactive and structured
innovation processes. The assessment process for the CII
Innovation Awards is a five-stage funnel process
comprising initial application, main application, and
assessor visit, evaluation by First Jury and final evaluation
and selection by the Grand Jury.
The CII Industrial Innovation Awards 2015 was a grand
success as seen by the high quality of applications, the
robustness and thoroughness of the process and the
eminent experts in technology, business and innovation
such as Prof. Y S Rajan, Honorary Distinguished Professor in
Indian Space Research Organisation, Dr. Vikram Sarabhai
Distinguished Professor, Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO), Prof. H P Khincha, Advisor, Dept. of
Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science (IISc),
Bangalore, Prof. S P Kothari, Deputy Dean, Gordon Y Billard,
Professor of Management & Director, MIT India Programme
as some of the illustrious names on the Jury panel.
Innovation &
entrepreneurship
A total of 150 applications were received from across India
and from leading Indian companies under different award
categories. Zydus Cadila was declared the Grand Winner
for being the Most Innovative Company of the Year and
won the Award for Manufacturing Sector under the Large
Enterprise Category.
A special category for start-ups was introduced last year,
with two awards – Best Manufacturing Start Up and Best
Service Start Up. The overall winner in the Start Up
category is the Grand Award winner for being the
Most Innovative Start Up of the Year and was given
to Right Track Admizzionz Campuz Pvt. Ltd. The Best
Manufacturing Start Up award was won by Ananya Seeds
Pvt Ltd. A total of 50 entries were received in this category,
of which 35 entries were selected to make presentations of
their business to the jury at the CII Start Up Conclave in
October 2015. Out of these, the top 10 most promising
Start Ups were selected for the awards.
In a highly competitive world, where students are scoring
almost 100% marks at school level, choosing a course and
seeking admission in the course of choice is an enigma for
many. There are over 700 degree awarding institutions and
36,000 colleges in India, offering a wide range of courses.
Students face several challenges when it comes to
pursuing higher education in India.
Firstly, they need to be clear about their career choice as
well as what they want to study. This requires a realistic
assessment of their competence as reflected in the
qualifying exams and other evaluation criteria.
Secondly, students need to be aware of various courses
and colleges that meet their aspirations and competence.
They also need to know the admission processes. This
information is not forthcoming easily and there is no
publically available single source of this information.
Moreover, there are significant variations and changes in
the admission processes for many courses and colleges
almost every year, which need tracking.
CII Strides
27
CII Industrial Innovation Awards
"Admizzionz Campuz
Services - Guiding Today's Youth to
Realise their Potential"