The growth of Design Industry in tier 2 and tier 3 cities

Tuesday January 17, 2012 , 3 min Read

It has been projected that the India urban population is most likely to be about 600 million in 2030, whilst it was only 340 million in the year 2008. Since the metropolitan centers in India are already buckling under the weight of the current population deluge. Cities that fall under tier 2 and tier 3 segments are most definitely India’s financial and developmental future with both balanced and equitable growth, becoming the core of projected urbanization in future India. Many businesses across industry sectors are already seen to move into these cities. Some of the promises that these potential cities hold that makes it conducive to financial growth are as following:

Lower salary expectation among ‘eager to work’ work-force
Less expenditure in real estate and a reduced cost of living
Decreased traffic congestion thus reducing travel time for employees

The design Industry in India

The commerce and Industry minister, Govt. of India has to be noted stating in a recently held CII function, the need to have almost 10,000 designers in India. The current number of design graduates in India is only around 1000. The statistics have shown that India has only 2 designers for every one million population, whilst Finland has 120 designers and Japan has 90 designers to the same ratio. Therefore, the Govt. has initiated industry to concentrate in small and medium cities to encourage designers, reinstating that these cities will be the backbone for driving the country’s future economy.

Indian corporate world and the ever-demanding Indian consumers have the undying hunger for well designed products and services. Thus making a tremendous scope of the Design Industry to thrive in the metros and also in the aspiration driven tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

Global meets Local

The idea for aesthetically pleasing, practical and functional design for their products and services exists among the people of the aspiration driven: tier 2 and 3 cities in India. The trend in the demand of high fashion, designer products along with exclusive designer services are seen to be in a rise, owing to the growing awareness and design consciousness among the people of small and medium cities in India. To cater to such demands there needs to exist an equally skilled design work-force that has the exact blend of Indian local influences combined with studied global aesthetics.

Online retail has evoked the demands of designers’ products and services in these parts of India to a great extend. Internet has facilitated the possibility of evoke that design consciousness in people residing in cities like Surat, Chandigarh and Ahmedabad.

Cities like Ahmedabad and Pune have significantly made a mark in the Indian map as thriving ‘design centers’. Ahmedabad hosting the most enigmatic design institute in the country namely, the National Institute of Design (NID) and also being home to a multitude of independent design houses. NID is in the process of establishing four more centers in Assam, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. Pune has always been a design centre housing award winning design houses like Elephant Design among many others. These design conscious and aspirational designers of cities like Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Pune, Nagpur, Kochi, Vadodara and Indore etc are more and more trending towards the idea of previously considered ‘unconventional career option like design’. The mushrooming design institutes are a testimony to such a change in the mindsets to people in these cities in India, which emphasizes the availability of skilled design talent.

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