The 20th India Design Summit, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in partnership with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT)-Govt. of India, Federal Foreign Office-Govt. of Germany, Govt. of Uttarakhand and All India Council for Technical Education commenced today on a digital platform.
Leading international design agencies namely, World Design Organisation (WDO), German Design Council (GDC), Korean Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP), OAV Germany Asia–Pacific Business Association and Taiwan Design Research Institute (TDRI) are key partners of the summit.
The focal theme of the summit is ‘promotion of Indian design for Atmanirbhar Bharat (Self-reliant India)’ laying emphasis on the overarching role played by design to bring in cutting edge solutions and improving design-based investment in India. As the life and livelihood across the world experience a series of disruptions, the design capabilities must be leveraged to spur the economic growth.
In her Inaugural address, Ms. Michelle Müntefering, Minister of State for International Cultural Politics, Federal Foreign Office, Govt. of Germany highlighted that design innovation not only leads to better products and services but also provides answers to social issues related to sustainability and environment. She further stated that Germany and India boast of their creative industries. The exchange and knowledge transfer in the creative areas such as design between India and Germany will add enormous value to our societies.
In his address, Mr. Udayant Malhoutra, Chairman, India Design Summit 2020 and CEO & Managing Director Dynamatic Technologies Ltd stated that while cutting across all sectors, design plays a critical role in improving the sustainability of companies, enhancing their competitiveness and expanding the market reach.
Mr. Srini Srinivasan, President, World Design Organisation stated that design should be encouraged as a tool to build strategic global partnerships to create a better world.
Mr. Lutz Dietzold, CEO, German Design Council stated that design has an immense potential to develop innovative, sustainable, functional and successful product or a business model. He further emphasized that 'Design in India for Atmanirbhar Bharat' is quite an apt theme for this year’s summit in the times in this pandemic as the countries are learning to be more innovative and self-reliant.
While addressing at the summit, Mr. Deep Kapuria, Chairman, CII National Committee on Design (2020- 21) & Chairman, The Hi-tech Group emphasized that Atmanirbhar Bharat is all set to promote local ingenuity and create global impact, and human centric design will be a strong enabler to provide self-reliant solutions.
While briefing on the pioneering role being played by CII in design, Prof. Pradyumna Vyas, Senior Advisor-CII mentioned that CII's initiatives such as iDesign, Design excellence awards, Design summit are significantly contributing in shaping and promoting the design ecosystem in India.
While conveying his vote of thanks, Mr. S Raghupathy, Deputy Director General and Chief Operating Officer, CII mentioned that Germany is known for its design and it is indeed an honour to have Germany as the partner country in the 20th edition of Design summit.
The eight-day (11-19 December 2020) long Summit will host a series of events on focused theme, webinars, design talks by eminent academicians and industry experts, organized in partnership with various national and global partners for Indian design, research & development community, highlighting best design practices and celebrating design excellence.
11 December 2020
New Delhi