In the years to come Design has to and must become integral to the national competitiveness. Design is extremely important for the future of our nation. Design contributes significantly to our culture, environment and economy. This needs to be recognized further more. Design has to be embraced in all sectors of public and corporate domain.

Design as evolved to into a new paradigm of development. It has transformed from a tool to make aesthetically pleasing and desirable products to a key role player in business to stay competitive and also in people’s lives. It is a discipline that drives economic growth, shapes human interactions with objects and systems and improves quality of life people.

Design helps achieve product differentiation, save costs, realize greater efficiencies, create enduring brands and present merchandize in a pleasant manner. Design not only makes economic sense, but also balances environmental and social outcomes. The role of design as a transformational force in the society, capable of providing the primary engine of growth for nation is being recognized widely. It is time that our industry and businesses recognize this and embraces design as an integral part of the business eco-system. Companies must place design at the centre of their business strategy so as to gain and sustain competitive advantage in a global marketplace.

The design industry is a small but crucial industry. The design industry has a multiplier role. In recent years, the Indian design industry has enjoyed positive growth with rising demand, an increasing number of businesses and rising turnover. The number of design companies is growing, as also there is growth in existing companies. There is intense entrepreneurial activity in the design industry. The existing companies are consolidating further by adding more services to their portfolio within diverse design disciplines.

The challenges that lie ahead of us are to enhance the public sector's awareness of design, to improve public services through design; to induce usage of design in small enterprises, to promote the role of good design to the private sector; to promote design export and above all to inculcate a national design culture and its effect on the quality of life by educating the general public.We must continually discover totally new areas, where design can benefit others and where its benefits have not yet even been imagined.

The term design is understood in many ways. We are excerpting a few accepted definitions of design.

The French Agency for the Promotion of Industrial Creation (APCI) describes design in the following way:

Design is a creative activity whose aim is to establish the multi-faced qualities of objects, processes, services and their systems in whole life cycles. Therefore, design is the central factor of innovative humanization of technologies and the crucial factor of cultural and economic exchange

Swedish Industrial Design Foundation, SVID, defines design …

As a working process with elements of innovation, functionality and aesthetics. Design is a working process to develop solutions in a deliberate and innovative way in which both functional and aesthetic requirements are include with the point of departure in the needs of the user. Design is used for the development of goods, services, processes, messages and environments

The Finnish design policy defines design in the following way:

Design means planning which takes aesthetic and ethical considerations, usability and marketing into account and which is targeted at businesses in industry, trade and services and at public sector organizations. The object of design may be a product, a service, communications, the living environment, and a corporate or organizational identity

The UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said the following about design:

Design is a structured creative process. Design is readily associated with industrial product design for manufactured products — specifically the ‘look’ of a product. However, the application of design is much broader, for example designing for function; for aesthetic appeal; for ease of manufacture; for sustainability; and designing for reliability or quality and business processes themselves. Service design affects how customers will experience the delivery of a service, such as a bank or a fast food restaurant. Elements of design, particularly graphic design, will form part of product, service and company branding and advertising strategy

The government of New Zealand, the New Zealand Design Task Force 2002 defines design as follows:

‘Design is an integrated process. It is a methodology (or a way of thinking), which guides the synthesis of creativity, technology, scientific and commercial disciplines to produce unique (and superior) products, services, and communications

The Flemish Ministry of Economy defines design as:

a holistic dealing with matters, that besides the (re-) styling of products, extends to the application of innovative and alternative materials, ergonomics, engineering, ecology and ethics, psychology, culture and last but not least management

The Danish government’s 2007 white paper on design, DesignDenmark, says the following:

Good design is an increasingly important means for businesses to hold their own in international competition. Design has the power to make products and services more attractive to customers and users, so they are able to sell at a higher price by being differentiated from the competition by virtue of new properties, values and characteristics.