India should be outsourcing hub for designers: Anand Sharma

Hyderabad, May 25 : Union Minister for Commerce, Industry and Textiles Anand Sharma on Saturday said that India should aim at becoming an outsourcing hub for designers.

“Finland has 145 designers per million population, Japan 90 per million whereas India has a dismal two designers per million population. This needs to change in the next five years and we should aim to create a pool of 15,000 top designers,” Anand Sharma said at a function after laying foundation stone to National Institute of Design at Hyderabad Central University at Gachibowli. “To achieve this goal, we need to weave in a philosophy of design into education and build linkages with Education system,” he said.

The NID Hyderabad which will come up in a 30 acre campus with an expenditure of Rs.155 crore will cater to a student population of nearly 500. The institute will be among the four new NIDs being established across the country. It will have a four year U.G. course and 2 and half year P.G. course to begin with.

Stressing on the importance of design in manufacturing sector, the Minister said that design was integral to human life and India has a rich tradition of design which goes back to 5,000 years. Government of India has announced a national design policy with the aim of building on our traditional knowledge skills and capabilities and to ensure that our shop floor workers, craftsmen and artisans become equal partners in manufacture of innovative products and con-temporisation of traditional crafts.

Referring to the year 2012-13 as the most challenging one for both global and Indian economy, the Minister expressed optimism of going back to higher growth rate of a minimum of 6 per cent. The Minister felt that it is the manufacturing sector which has to contribute more to achieve this growth rate as agriculture contributes a stable 15 per cent to GDP and service sector cannot grow beyond a point on their own without the strength of manufacturing sector. Anand Sharma felt that manufacturing sector will have to provide jobs to 150 million youth who will join the work force by the year 2025.

Responding to the request made by Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Ananda Sharma said that Government of India will take positive steps to establish a new National Investment and Manufacturing Zone (NIMZ) at Ongole. Andhra Pradesh already has two NIMZs sanctioned for Medak and Chittoor districts. The NIMZ is a township of the size anywhere between 50 sq. kms and 900 sq kms. Investors in this zone will have the facility of Single Window Clearances at the national level. AP will become the second state to have three NIMZs after Maharashtra.

Earlier, Union Minister for HRD Pallam Raju said that the Institute will address the problem of shortage of city planners, town planners and designers in manufacturing process. He expressed hope that the Institute will foster good links with Hyderabad Central University.

The Chief Minister stressed on the importance of quality in education and the necessity of having specialised schools for design. Ministers D Sridhar Babu, Dr J Geeta Reddy and G Prasad Kumar attended the function. Earlier, DIPP Secretary Saurab Chandra welcomed the gathering. INN