| In the last two weeks, a section of Indian designers got more publicity than what they had bargained for, with a very high profile demolition of two retail locations on the outskirts of South Delhi splashed all over in media. With their penchant for spending more effort on getting free (or paid) publicity rather than honing their creative talent to establish businesses that can be considered significant at least in the Indian context if not international, many in the general public derived sadistic pleasure in seeing their boutiques housed in illegally constructed citadels being razed to ground. The affected designers, of course, inadvertently added to their own ridicule by their incoherent rambling on TV channels and being seen invoking divine intervention to prevent bulldozers from doing their job. |
| There is certainly no case for showing any leniency to anyone for breaking the law or like in this instance "" knowingly operating from illegal premises. However, there is certainly a case for giving Indian design whatever support we can give through both public as well as private initiatives. |
| In the now unavoidable comparison between China and India in almost every international forum relating to almost every sector and issue, India currently enjoys a very distinct advantage over China when it comes to intellectual capability. India, as yet, is not known for its potential for intellectual creativity but the transition can be made relatively easily. There is no denying the fact that in terms of design talent, India has a very impressive reservoir. This talent is not limited only to clothing design but encompasses wide range of consumer and industrial products, be it jewellery, accessories, leather goods, home use artifacts, furniture etc. Even in the field of architecture and interior design, India has some of the most talented professionals and their numbers are already growing very impressively. |
| What the government has to do is to bring "Design" on a national agenda, through the Ministry of Human Resource Development and in close association with other ministries that are the most important beneficiaries of design based value addition e.g. textiles, commerce, small scale industries, urban development, as also the leading chambers of commerce. CII (and more recently, FICCI) and NID have undertaken some very encouraging initiatives but they are not enough in the context of the sheer magnitude of effort needed. Other bodies like Fashion Design Council of India seem to have, unfortunately, fallen into the same trap as NIFT used to be in some years ago by giving the impression that their raison d'etre is to organize fashion shows/fashion weeks and in the process, trivialize their more fundamental responsibility, which is to give a strong fillip to Indian fashion by identifying and developing Indian talent. |
| NID, through Ministry of Commerce, has already done some good work on coming out with a design policy. However, this effort has to be made even more broad-based and lead to development of a white paper covering all facets of design, projection of design talent needs, and recommendations on how these needs can be met. India also needs many more institutions like NID, and the government must allocate adequate resources to open at least four more campuses across different parts of the country (these resources can be very easily augmented by private enterprises which will be very willing to support such an initiative). |
| Designers have to be supported by the industry, and hence effort has to be made for much better industry participation. Unfortunately, institutions like NIFT have been found wanting in providing such a platform to its students, resulting in their ending up becoming garage designers with no recourse but to open their own boutiques in all kinds of "villages" and other cheap though unauthorized retail outlets. Much more can be done to provide internship and employment opportunities for newly minted professionals in some of the best design driven national and multi-national companies. |
| Lastly, design has to be showcased in an appropriately conducive environment. It is no longer a surprise to find some brilliant creations from Indian designers while browsing through non-descript outlets dispersed across many cities in India. Retail outlets like Next, Cinnamon, Tanishq, and Fabindia do provide a very promising glimpse of the talent available in India. However, all of these and many more have to be given an all-under-one-roof environment where potential customers, especially international visitors who do not have enough time or the opportunity to locate such stores, can browse through and appreciate the width and the depth of India's creativity. Hence, even as MG1 and MG2 are now razed to rubble, the government (in close cooperation with select state governments) must identify and allocate suitable (large) plots of land (in prime locations so as to provide the appropriate ambience and accessibility) where hundreds of retail outlets showcasing designers can be housed in. To start with, such "malls" "" whether fully enclosed or in the open "" have to come up at the top-eight or nine cities in India i.e. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Pune, and Chandigarh. The government's role can be limited to merely releasing some land in these cities, and offering it to private developers on appropriate commercial terms that make it commercially feasible for budding designers to take space and then compete as they should for making a mark for themselves. |
| India can benefit immensely from this talent, and it would be puerile to relegate Indian design potential to just a page-3 phenomenon. |
Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper
