New Delhi: In the two and half years he has been working as a designer,
27-year-old Abhinav Tiwari has moved three jobs and is now into his
fourth at Innovative Design Engineering Animation Ltd, where he designs
everything from lifestyle products to medical devices. Tiwari has
previously worked at International Car and Motors Ltd (ICML), part of
the Sonalika Group that is in the automobile business, Conex Avia Auto
Pvt Ltd, a Pune-company that was designing a low-cost car, and TVS Motor Co.
Tiwari, a post-graduate in product design from Ahmedabad’s National
Institute of Design, is much in demand. Indian and multinational firms
want to design everything from cars to phones in India and there aren’t
enough designers going around.
....
“Even below-average students boast of receiving two to three job offer
letters,” says Sharma. Last year, eight companies, including Godrej
Industries Ltd, GoMobile Pte. Ltd and OK Play India Ltd, visited the SPA
campus to hire students. Each company wished to hire four to six
designers from SPA’s graduating batch of 15 product designers.
Experts attribute this situation to the limited number of training
institutes in the country. “China has set up some 300 to 400 design
schools in recent times,” says Vyas.
In February this year, the government approved the National Design
Policy, which aims to further the cause of design education, encourage
use of designs by small-scale and cottage industries and crafts, and
branding and positioning of Indian design within the country and elsewhere.
.
cont'd....
http://www.livemint.com/2007/09/06002013/Talent-crunch-spoils-product-d.html