The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector has been recognised as the engine of economic growth. Many countries all over the world have established a SME Development Agency as the nodal agency to coordinate and oversee all government interventions with respect to the development of this sector.
The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are a vital part of the Indian economy. They contribute to over 45% of industrial production and around 40% of the total exports. There are about 13 million MSMEs in India, which employ about 31 million people. Thus MSMEs are the single largest contributor in terms of employment generation, besides production and export revenues in the manufacturing sector. Presence of MSMEs is seen in the value chain of almost all major industry sectors like automotive industry, garments and textile industry, leather industry and drug and pharmaceutical industry etc.
Role of Design in Improving Competitiveness:
Design is an approach, process and methodology. Design is intended, purposeful, contextual, which is aimed to create advantage, distinct and futuristic outcome to the existing scenario. Design being systemic and holistic in nature, helps in generating more creative, impactful and sustainable solutions.
Design intervention in business is to create value addition to existing products and services. Through design process , MSMEs can add value to products, services, and in the process to their firms.
Design, innovation and growth are closely linked. Innovation and design are not simply about new products or technology. They are also about how to improve/diversify products for everyday use, leading to reduced costs, increased utility and acceptability resulting in new business opportunities. Design is recognized as an innovative discipline that can help MSMEs to sustain and grow in competitive market.
Design Clinic Scheme for Design Expertise to MSMEs, a unique and ambitious design intervention scheme for the country’s micro, small and medium scale enterprises, is a n initiative of Ministry of MSME, Government of India launched under National Manufacturing Competitiveness programme. The main objective of the Design Clinic Scheme is to bring MSME sector and design expertise to a common platform and to provide expert advice and solutions on real time design problems, resulting in continuous improvement and value addition for existing products and services. This model brings exposure to design thinking and process to the door steps of industry clusters for design awareness, improvement, evaluation, analysis and design related intervention and application.
Design clinic scheme will assist industrial clusters to open a channel for design information inflow for creative, innovative and futuristic approach towards products, processes, operations, manufacturing and business design. The scheme will help generate insight for opportunity identification and design intervention for competitive and breakthrough solutions for MSMEs.
The objective of Design Clinic scheme is to enhance industry competitiveness and productivity with the help of design intervention and application at various functional levels. Design Clinic Scheme is structured to provide design related help through design awareness seminar, design awareness programme and design projects to give design inputs to products and services of MSMEs to enhance competitiveness.The scheme provides help through financial assistance at different stages for better implementation of scheme and design awareness.
National Institute of Design(NID), Ahmedabad assists the Ministry of MSME, Government of India, as Nodal Agency for implementation of the scheme.
For easy percolation of design thinking and philosophy and maximum benefit for MSME units implementation of the Design Clinic Scheme is spread into following 3 broader areas. These areas help in Smooth transition of design intervention to MSME industrial and business clusters.
Design Awareness Seminar
Design Awareness programme
Need Assessment Survey
Design Clinic Workshop
Design Projects (handled by Design Professionals/ Student Designers)
For details please contact ddcdp@editin.in Contact Number 9381131456
