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| NID to apply for Centre of Excellence status |
| Archana M Prasanna / Bangalore Nov 16, 2009, 00:10 IST |
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The status would enable the institute to offer graduate, post graduate and PhD degrees instead of diplomas
The National Institute of Design (NID)’s governing council will meet this December to work on its final proposal to apply for the Centre Of Excellence (COE) status through an Act of Parliament. The proposal will be forwarded to Parliament by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
NID is currently recognised as an autonomous institute under the DIPP. The status would enable the institute to offer graduate, post graduate and PhD degrees instead of diplomas.
In early 2007, the DIPP envisioned the national design policy aimed at creating a design-enabled innovation economy. One of the major recommendations under the policy was strengthening design education in the country for which work is in full swing.
It had then recommended according university or ‘deemed to be university’ status to NID under section 3 (f) of the University Grants Commission Act. However, the institute will be applying for COE status through an act of parliament to retain its independent functioning.
“As an institute we have created valuable resources for the nation which will be strengthened when we have the Centre of Excellence status.Through this recognition, we will come under an Act of parliament enabling us to retain our originality. This will help us enhance our role of developing design initiatives in the country” says Pradyumna Vyas, director of NID.
The national design policy had recommended setting up institutes on the lines of NID in various parts of India to promote design programmes. Under this initiative, the government has narrowed down on Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Madhya Pradesh for setting up the new NIDs in the next two to three years. Cities like Hyderabad, Jorhat, Bhopal and Gwalior are some of the cities that have been shortlisted. An NID will also be set up in the Northern part of India for which target cities are yet to be finalised.
Interested state governments have offered around 30-50 acres of land for setting up the institute. Each NID will gradually have an intake of 1000 students. The national design policy had stated that public-private partnership mode could be an option for setting up these new institutes but sources say that no call has been made by the government for private partners as of now.
At present NID has campuses in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Bangalore. The institute runs 8 programmes in the Ahmedabad campus, 5 in Gandhinagar and 3 in the Bangalore campus. The Bangalore campus is the institute’s R&D campus where there are 30 students for the three programmes.
Vyas says the institute is planning to introduce a two-year course on universal design which would look at creating designs to benefit all sections of the society. “The focus will be to understand the problems faced by the differently-abled, aged, studying environmental hazards, safety issues etc and coming up with designs to make a difference,” he adds.
Moreover, other national design policy recommendations like globalisation of design education, the India Design Mark and Indian Design Council (IDC) are also in various stages of implementation. The India Design Mark would be accorded to designs which satisfy criteria like originality, innovation, aesthetic appeal, user-centricity, safety and eco-friendliness. The IDC would consist of influential personalities who would undertake design awareness and effectiveness programmes both within India and abroad.
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