NID chief asks Bengal MSMEs to embrace I-Mark

MSMEs in West Bengal should embrace the India Design Mark (I-Mark) to make their products more acceptable in terms of superiority in the market, director of National Institute of Design (NID), Pradyumna Vyas said.
"I-Mark, an acronym for Indian Design Mark, could be a powerful motif for MSMEs in West Bengal to impress and get a bigger slice of the world market, said Vyas.
"Traditionally, West Bengal is home to many MSMEs which make a wide variety of products. I have no doubt about the quality of the products. What they need is a greater focus on and more investments in design to move up the value chain," he said at the Design Conference-Cum-Seminar organised by CII in here.

Vyas said the central government has a subsidy scheme that allows MSMEs to get 60 per cent waiver on application for the I-Mark tag. "Of the many advantages is the fact that I-Mark is a route to making it to the G-Mark, the highest quality marking for industrial design in Japan," he said.
West Bengal has the country's first designing school (at Shantiniketan) and its people are widely known for their aesthetic bent of mind and expertise in technology. "That precisely explains why we are here to kick off our countrywide road-shows to promote awareness about the importance of good design," he added.

"A product which carries I-Mark is seen as a product of top quality, high performance, technological finesse, and safety," said Vyas, who has over 30 years of professional and teaching experience in a wide range of spheres.