Rs.10 crore rolling venture capital fund set up to support young designers

Shri Kamal Nath, Union Minister for Commerce & Industry, has announced the setting up of a Rolling Fund at National Design Business Incubator (NDBI), which is an initiative of the National Institute of Design (NID) to support young designers aspiring to become entrepreneurs in the field of design. “Needy young designers desirous of pursuing their business ideas through incubation route at NDBI can now avail this Rolling Fund support”, he informed.

The Minister further stated that the major objective of the Incubator (NDBI) is to kindle spirit of innovation ingrained in the creative culture of designers paving the path for creation of a new breed of “Designpreneurs”, and in addition, the government has agreed to permit the NID faculty to have a share in their consultancy work. The pattern of consultancy sharing would be on the lines of other premier educational institutions in India such as IITs and IIMs.

National Design Business Incubator set up by NID in 2005 is aimed at building on India’s design strengths aimed at making “made in India, designed for the world” a reality. The first and only design-led business incubator in the country set up with the support of DST, NDBI helps young designers turn their innovative ideas and concepts into successful competitive businesses by providing an environment where they can develop the essentials of business management skills and systems.

Lack of adequate support in pursuing their ideas into business models has so far been a debilitating factor for young designers in setting up their start-up businesses. In spite of having excellent business ideas, designers so far have not been able to pursue their design enabled business instincts in view of the above situation. This has forced most of them to take up jobs though they wanted to be entrepreneurs.

Design and innovation are inextricably linked, the distinction between them often blurred. The design process guides the transformation of innovation into fully functional, marketable products and services. It is design which links technology to the needs and desires of markets. The need to set up a separate Rolling Fund has arisen especially when most of the financial institutions do not support young designers who are fresh, and first generation entrepreneurs just out of the academic institutions, without industrial experience.