Towards the Future: The Respositioned Institute of Design

India must create and reinforce the unique position for design in development - for is not design a power process tool to help solve problems in a sustainable and participatory manner? We need to create a 'Design for Development' Institute, or at the least, a programme called "Design for Development" in an existing Design school. This Institute and/or programme needs to be aggressively marketed. Once this Institute or programme is in place it has to have the right ingredients to create professionals who would contribute to India's development, using design.

• If development is to be accelerated, we need to look at all available human resources in the country that can be trained to contribute. Age 18-22 is fine…but

• What about age 40+? Consider the typical corporate worker who works hard, buys a house, sends his children to an English-medium school, holidays abroad and then as he reaches the age of 39-40 he starts wondering about the meaning of life. Some of these people are interested in giving back to the community - they don't exactly know how they could get involved. They represent a vast potential waiting to be tapped for development. They are professionals, trained and experienced, aware of best practice across the world, and understand the skills of project management. Just imagine harnessing their ...