Karnataka to host ‘Bengaluru Design Festival’ with Tech Summit

The Government of Karnataka is set to formulate and implement a design policy and will host the world’s largest design festival - Bengaluru Design Festival - along with Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS 22), Scheduled to be held in November.

Higher education and minister for IT/BT and Science and Technology Dr C N Ashwath Narayan announced this in London on Monday after meeting the officials of the World Design Council (WDC), World Design Organisation (WDO) and UK Design Council in London.

Narayan said the Bengaluru Design Festival will be “the world’s largest design festival”.

He said the importance of design in different industrial sectors, from automobiles, transportation, and leather to the IT industry, has gained importance.

The minister said the state’s interest is to formulate and implement the design policy for Karnataka.

“The policy will have inputs from the National Design Policy and seek inputs from WDC to come up with a framework and structure,” he added.

‘Design thinking in the curriculum’

He said spoke about the design becoming part of the school and college curriculum in Karnataka.

“The pilot project for the design thinking in school project can be done in selected government schools and based on the impact, the project can be scaled across the state. The IT department will take the lead to formulate and implement the design policy for the state,” he added.

He invited the officials to the state for further discussions and proceedings.

Narayan said that the WDC has extended its support to implement the proposed design policy and also integrate ‘Design Thinking’ into the school and college curricula.

Narayan had earlier announced that a Bengaluru Design District (BD2) would come up along the lines of Dubai’s d3.

“The proposed design policy, design district and design education will put Karnataka in the global design circle and help drive investments and jobs creation in the state’s creative sector,” Paula Graham-Gazzard of WDC said, according to a statement from the minister’s office.

Narayan held talks with top officials from educational institutions such as Oxford and Cambridge universities.

In the conference organised at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre, in association with British Council, Narayan also spoke to representatives of several edutech companies.

According to the statement, Narayan deliberated about faculty training, skills training, the intervention of technology in education, and coordination between industry and academia among other
things.

During the talks, Narayan emphasised on initiatives to be undertaken to impart skills to students as per the objectives of NEP and to cater to the demand of the industry.

Prof Pradyumna Vyas, Member of Board of Directors, World Design Organisation (WDO) and Mrs Anne Boddington, Trustee, UK Design Council, Tom Joseph, ED, Arun Balachandran, Director (Digital Division), John Xavier, Director, Novel Initiatives of International Skill Development Corporation (ISDC) were present.