Nasscom, Facebook partner to support over 500 product startups in India

IT-BPM industry body Nasscom has partnered social media giant Facebook to evangelise the product design ecosystem and support over 500 product startups in India.

Under 'Product Design Initiative', a flagship programme of Nasscom Product Council, the partners aim to support over 500 product startups on product design and train more than 5,000 product designers over a period of two years, Nasscom said in a statement.

This initiative stems from the need to build design skills that will propel innovative thinking and approaches to build solutions in key sectors where technology can play a transformational role, it added.

"Design as a tool for innovation has developed rapidly in recent years. Design thinking, methodologies and tools enable solutions for complex and challenging issues and help re-imagine systems," Nasscom President R Chandrashekhar said.

With this initiative, Nasscom plans to scale up the focus on product design and engage the young entrepreneurs into becoming problem solvers and solution builders, he added.

The nationwide initiative will offer focussed programmes to build awareness around product design, training on design tools, design lab, awards, design sprints and mentorship.

"The Design Initiative will aim to build and diffuse a design culture across our ecosystem, link up with academia, recognise outstanding designs and overall, ensure India's software products delivery delightful customer experiences," Nasscom Product Council Chairman Ravi Gururaj said.

"At Facebook, we are passionate about design and would like to work alongside industry to foster innovation in product design in India, a country known for great technology and engineering talent," Facebook VP Product Design Julie Zhuo said.