> As a community we need to impress upon the industry
> and the government that design can and will act as an
> important catalyst in making India global leaders. And
> if this collective effort manages to influence we are
> talking of a win-win situation.

I am somewhat more cynical about this point.

I find from my current perspective in the Indian industry
that the biggest need we have now is not design cats,
management whiz-kids, IT gurus or media moguls.

If India is to survive as an independent economic entity
and to retain some sort of indigenous industrial growth
(by "indigenous" I mean that core IP stays in the country),
then we badly, very badly, need competent mechanical engineers
and elecrical engineers upfront. These engineers in these
supposedly "traditional" technological domains have to be
the sort who like getting their hands dirty, and also have
a deeply embedded sensibility for the scientific method. And
in turn, they need to find that their professions are respected,
and that they are not seen as second-raters who "could not make
it to the IIM's or to the USA".

Without core industrial IP remaining in the country, industrial
designer dreams will remain dreams, for there will be no one,
and no economic case, to bring these dreams into reality.
Unless our engineers move on from the rather "brahminical"
perspective of deskwork (for what is IT but esoteric deskwork -
when did you last meet a cutting-edge computer hardware
engineer working in India ?), or the even more patronising
role of "technocrat", "manager", or whatever, no one will
actually get down to making things. And let us face it,
NID wish-games and academic make-believe is fine, we may
build with our own hands our own glorified electric guitar
mockups (my ill-starred EMC project !), or paper-shredders
(by S Vanka, arguably the most elaborate EMC project ever !),
or some arcane gadget. But we are not, and we should not aspire
to be engineers. Zealots we may be, cleansers of corporate
culture we may see ourselves as, we may even claim our
right to be "change agents" with evangelical fervour,
but we cannot take on all the roles, not with the kind of
specialist domain knowledge they need.

I look at the kind of young engineering workforce that
may have to execute the mechanical design of some small
component, say, a cupholder in a car, that I have "designed"
in terms of ergonomics, functional description, look and
feel and so on. They usually can't cut it. They are simply
not sensitive, not alert, not trained well enough.

They are not "creative".

And no amount of my kicking and screaming as a designer will
ever make them so. The whole doggone development chain has to
be creative, or anything you do as a designer, most noble
the intentions or whatever, anything you seek to make - becomes
dust.

Sure, China sits big-brotherlike upon our shoulder, and
we find the need to measure ourselves against them. I have
never been there myself, and others here may know better,
but I do believe they have a far more mature industrial
and engineering culture than us. And now, with something
like fifty universities offering industrial design courses
in China, one expects to see a change in what they make.
They are ready for it. They plan much more effectively,
much more rationally, than us.

The graphic sorts may ask - how does this matter ? As long as
multinationals flourish and advertise in India, the media backbone
exists for us to serve and prosper - whether it is film,
photography or whatever. I say this - if the industrial guts
of the country are really ripped out, and we end up in a position
where we need to import just about anything we need in terms of
finished goods, there is not going to be much need for that
media-customer-pressure-linkup eventually. Today, the media
backbone has a role in positioning multinationals against what
is left of the domestic industry. Tomorrow, they will not need
much creative local help, though they will certainly - heh heh -
"outsource" any jobbing skills that are cheaper over here.

Essentially, I propose my hypothesis that unless us lot with
design degrees and the attached "creative licenses" thereof
stop viewing ourselves in isolation as "important catalysts",
and really try to understand what we need from other professionals,
what makes them what they are, and how to network with them
in everyone's greater interest rather than just keep this sort
of zeal a clannish designerly thing, it is not going anywhere.
I guess some list members would have valuable opinion to offer.
Until then, it is sort of fun fencing with my old friend Tony
Lopez all over again.

End of rant.

-Jayant S-