Design to play key role in India’s decisive decade of development: Piyush Goyal
Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday said design will play a crucial role in India’s decisive decade of development, stressing that it should be viewed not merely as a cosmetic element but as a strategic national capability that connects technology with people and transforms ideas into impactful products and systems.
Addressing the Post Budget Webinar 2026 on the new National Institute of Design (NID) in New Delhi, Goyal said India’s demographic dividend and strong talent pool of nearly 2.3 million Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduates every year will act as a force multiplier for the country’s growth.
He noted that with an average age of about 28.5 years, India’s youthful population and technological capabilities will help expand the country’s growth story to the remotest parts and strengthen its global engagement. Integrating design as a core national capability, he said, will be vital to achieving the vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047.
Highlighting India’s cultural diversity as a major advantage, the minister said the country’s varied traditions, crafts, textiles, languages and food habits represent a unique design capital. Integrating this heritage with contemporary design, he said, can help India create globally distinctive products that are difficult for other countries to replicate.
Goyal said the National Institute of Design has evolved over the past decade from a single premier institute into a national network and an Institution of National Importance, expanding its role from aesthetic design to solving technical and social challenges.
Referring to provisions in the Union Budget 2026, the minister said the government has announced the establishment of a new National Institute of Design in eastern India to address the shortage of trained designers and expand access to world-class design education.
He noted that the eastern region of India is rich in culture, crafts, textiles and industry, but its potential has not been fully realised due to the lack of a strong design ecosystem. The proposed institute, he said, will connect traditional craft clusters, MSMEs and emerging industries with modern design education and help artisans move up the value chain.
The minister emphasised that design education in India should place Indian culture and civilisational knowledge at its core, while also supporting the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat and strengthening Brand India globally through innovation and high-quality products.
He also highlighted the changing technological landscape driven by Artificial Intelligence, immersive media and robotics, noting that technology must be guided by thoughtful design to ensure usability and inclusive benefits for citizens.
Goyal proposed a five-point roadmap to strengthen design innovation in the country. The plan includes positioning NID campuses as knowledge hubs for design, strengthening industry–academia collaboration particularly with MSMEs, establishing Brand India design labs to improve citizen experiences in governance and services, creating joint AI and frontier technology design labs with technical institutes, and developing the proposed eastern NID as a model campus through public–private partnerships.
Addressing students and young designers, the minister said their work will play a key role in shaping how India’s products, services and digital interfaces are experienced by people across the country and globally.
He expressed confidence that the discussions at the webinar would help develop a clear roadmap to make design a central pillar of India’s development journey, with the new National Institute of Design emerging as a global symbol of innovation rooted in India’s traditions.
