May 5th, 2016
To catalyze world class solution development for Indian Innovators
To evangelize the product design ecosystem in India, NASSCOM today announced the launch of `India Product Design Initiative’ in partnership with Facebook. A flagship program by the NASSCOM Product Council, the initiative aims to support 500+ product startups and will be instrumental in training 5,000+ product designers over a period of two years.
India is at an interesting inflection point – its IT Services and Products industry is at the precipitous of its next phase of evolution. With the rapid growth of the start-up ecosystem and increasing opportunities the country is uniquely poised to build products that will redefine the space globally.. With this boom, there is still a lot of un-tapped potential in the domain; hence, it is also important to put in place the enablers that will help to fast track building world class solutions from India for India, other emerging markets and the world. A key gap identified in the ecosystem to spur innovation is the focus on design – product design that is simple, yet builds a powerful product and exemplifies customer experience. In the recently presented Budget, the Finance Minister articulated the imperatives for technology adoption by the country across land records, agriculture, citizen services and a host of other areas; this initiative stems from the need to evangelize innovating thinking and approaches to build solutions in fields like education and healthcare.
Speaking on the announcement, Mr. R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM said, “Design as a tool for innovation has developed rapidly in recent years and can be seen in strategic design consideration, design management considerations and design thinking of the final product or service. Many organizations lack this broader experience of design. With this initiative NASSCOM plans to scale up the focus on product designing to build a design Community that will contribute towards insights on new trends and mentorship. We also aim to Sustain & grow this effort as a way to engage the youth of India into becoming problem solvers and solution builders.”
This unique nationwide initiative by NASSCOM will offer focused programs to build awareness around product designing, thinking and training from leading industry vendors on design tools and expert consultation. As part of the initiative, NASSCOM will also create a specific Design Council, with leading industry experts to define key outcomes of the program. The initiative will also look at creating a design lab along with the start-up warehouse in Bangalore; along with mentorship programs of shortlisted start-ups. The India product design initiative will provide a strong platform for product designers to connect them with industry experts and the design community at large. It will also provide them access to global experts helping Indian product startups leverage global and Indian customers. After, the completion of 6 months, the program will shortlist 200 start-ups to facilitate them.
About NASSCOM
NASSCOM® is the premier trade body and the chamber of commerce of the IT-BPM industries in India. NASSCOM is a global trade body with more than 1800 members, which include both Indian and multinational companies that have a presence in India. NASSCOM’s member and associate member companies are broadly in the business of software development, software services, software products, consulting services, BPO services, e-commerce & web services, engineering services off-shoring and animation and gaming. NASSCOM’s membership base constitutes over 95% of the industry revenues in India and employs over 3.1 million professionals.
Salient Features of the Initiative
-Awareness: Through focused programs, build awareness on product design, design thinking
-Events: Expert talks by Industry leaders and peers.
-Mentorship and Recognition: Recognise best 20 product design annually
-Design Lab: Design oriented co learning space for ideation and creation of user centric design products
-Networking: Casual meet ups of designers and practitioners
-Expert Connect: Repository of design directory consisting of design firms, consultants, service providers, industry experts, practitioners & designers.
-Design Community: Online community wherein design experts, product leaders, startups and other can engage on various themes and discussions related to product design.