NIDian wins Hong Kong Design Center award for her work

Date 12 Dec 2012 16:07:16 IST , Times of India    Tags: Fashion Design

A ceramic and glass design student from National Institute of Design (NID) jointly won Hong Kong Design Center's (HKDC) Design For Asia (DFA) student award on December 6 at Hong Kong. Ishita Jain, the award winner, had worked closely with traditional glass bangle makers of Purdilnagar in Uttar Pradesh and had prepared the student project on the theme 'design for change'.

Talking about the project, Jain said that she got interested in bangle makers as they make classic joint-less bangles on indigenous wood fire furnace and there are only a handful of artisans keeping the tradition alive.

"This community's cultural history is intertwined with their bangle making technique. The craft is the livelihood of the Muslim community of Purdilnagar, who are its sole practitioners in the world. Today, the major challenge faced by this community is visibility, livelihood and self-respect. An intense field study of the area was an insight into the socio-economic complexities," she said.

The project supported by NID Ahmedabad aimed to bring visibility to the cluster by marketing traditionally made bangles into urban spaces, thus integrating them into the mainstream design consciousness. Exposure to diverse market segments will give them an opportunity to express their individuality and augment their incomes, said NID officials who will carry forward the project.

NIFT convocation to award degrees 200 students

Date 10 Dec 2012 12:52:01 IST , Times of India    Tags: Fashion Design

National Institute of Fashion Technology(NIFT), Gandhinagar, is conducting its convocation for the passing out graduates and post-graduates of the session ending 2012 within the premises of the institute. In the convocation, 139 graduates and 61 post-graduates will be awarded their degrees.

First batch of 30 students of the post-graduate programme from NIFT-Jodhpur will also be awarded their degrees. Shri A.Sakthivel, Board of Governor, Member & Chairman, A.E.P.C. will the chief guest for the Convocation & Mr. Shaleen Toshniwal, Joint M.D., Banswara Syntex Ltd, will be the guest of honour. Mr. P.K. Gera,(I.A.S.), Director General, NIFT will also be present. The convocation will be followed by NIFT-Gandhinagar Alumni Meet wherein Gandhinagar chapter will be formed under the aegis of NIFTAA.

The National Institute of Fashion Technology was set up by the Government of India in 1986 as an autonomous society in collaboration with the Fashion Technology(FIT), New York, to train professionals to meet the requirements of the textiles industry.

The Institute has pioneered the evolution of fashion business education across the country through its network of 15 centres at New Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Patna, Bhopal, Shillong, Kannur, Jodhpur , Bhubaneshwar, Rae Bareli and Kangra.

NIFT, besides conducting regular professional undergraduate and post-graduate programmes in design, management and technology, also offers short duration part-time courses under its Continuing Education(CE) programme.

Four new National Institutes of Design to come up in 4 yrs

Date 14 Dec 2012 10:34:31 IST , Times of India    Tags: Fashion Design

The government today said four new National Institutes of Design (NID) will be set up in different cities at a cost of about Rs 540 crore in the next four years.

"Design plays an important role in making the industry competitive. So, we need to foster design education. Thus, four new National Institutes of Design will be set up in four cities -- Hyderabad, Kanpur, Bhopal and Jorhat (Guwahati) -- in the 12th Five-Year Plan," Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary Subhash Chandra said.

He was talking to reporters on the sidelines of an award function jointly organised by CII and NID here.

Chandra said these institutes would attract a total investment of about Rs 540 crore in different phases.

Besides, the concerned states are providing about 30 acres of land to set up campuses, NID Director Pradyumna Vyas said.

Each institute would impart training to 500 students every year, Vyas said.

NID functions as an autonomous body under the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (Ministry of Commerce and Industry).

At present, NID main campus is at Ahemdabad with two more campuses, one at Gandhinagar and another one at Bangalore.

Experimenting with wearable art

Date 4 Dec 2012 13:05:36 IST , Deccan Herald    Since his first year at National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), he has been designing clothes for himself and his friends. Now in his final year, Jaswant  Daranaga’s love for fabric and deigns has not only made him a known face in his college but internationally too. His design ‘The Glamour Card’ made him won second place at 2012 Brancott Estate World of Wearable Art (WOW), world’s prominent and largest wearable art shows, held in Wellington, New Zealand this year. “Every fashion designing student aspires to get his designs selected at WOW. Winning is nowhere in minds because selection of design itself is a big deal. To compete for an internationally acclaimed award, students send 10 designs at a time and none of them gets selected at WOW,” says Jaswant, whose one out of five designs got selected among 164 incredible designs from all across the globe. The garment designed by Jaswant and his associate Neil Sarjal is inspired by the game of cards. “The garment is based on the grandiosity and luxury of the game of cards.  It is made with sequins, lurex, buckram, hard net and boning. The intricate patterns define the unpredictability with every toss of sides and rich silhouette personifies lady  luck,” shares Jaswant, who created buzz with his talent in his first year by becoming a finalist for WOW in 201O. This year, it was his second WOW entry. For talented Jaswant, this is just the beginning - to create his own mark in the industry. However, this was not his dream some years back when like other students he was confused about the direction he would take in life. Following the footsteps of his friends he opted for engineering and took admission in a city-based college. It was not until he saw a documentary on Gianni Versace, that Jaswant decided to go for fashion designing.  “I knew I was good at something and that was drawings. I am thankful to my parents who were cooperative and allowed me to leave engineering mid-way and appear for NIFT.  I cleared the exam with a good rank which seriously boosted my confidence,” says the  21 -year old young designer. Since his foray into designing world, Jaswant has been part of designing for films too. He was an assistant designer for Rakesh Mehta’s Life Ki to Lag Gayi and has also styled Bollywood stars like Zayed Khan, Fardeen Khan and Jackie Shroff.

NIFT- Patna grads make it big

Date 5 Dec 2012 15:55:27 IST , Times of India

With dreams in their eyes, they had taken admission in the best institutes of the city, and now they are set to fly high as they will leave their alma mater with lucrative job offers in their kitty. Students of some of the finest institutes have already been placed in different organizations or are in the process of being recruited by companies awaited on the campuses.

Boasting 100% placements last year, Indian Institute of Technology Patna (IIT-P) has already got 15 of its students placed in three organizations in November and three students in December. "While recruitment at most IITs starts in December, a few companies visited our campus earlier this year. Placements would continue till March and we expect a 100% placement in 2012 too," said Suresh Prasad, in charge, Training and Placement Cell, IIT-P. Of the 25 companies that visited IIT-P last year, the major employers were multinationals like Microsoft, Amazon and Flipkart and domestic majors like TCS, Infosys, Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp, Bharat Petroleum and DRDO.

With recruitments going on across all campuses of Birla Institute of Technology (BIT), almost 60% students of BIT Patna have already been placed in 13 companies. "We have one of the best placement records in the city and some companies that have hired BITP students are Wipro, Samsung and Facebook. About 5-6 companies visited BITP and our students were recruited from other campuses too," said BITP director S L Gupta.

Campus selection is also going on at the National Institute of Technology Patna (NITP), with quite a few students placed comfortably, said Vidya Sagar Nath, registrar, NITP.

While engineering college students are raking in moolah, management graduates are not behind. Almost 25% of Chandragupt Institute of Management Patna (CIMP) students are already placed. An elated director V Mukund Das said, "The recruitment season started early and would be over by the end of January. Most of the students are from the state itself and we have 100% placement record. The organizations that come for recruitment here once, definitely visit CIMP again." Das expects that students would receive salary offers as high as Rs 15 lakh this year.

Three students of the first national law university of Bihar, Chanakya National Law University (CNLU), got offers from Pangea, a legal process outsourcing (LPO) firm, as early as July 2012 and two others got pre-placement offers from where they did their internship. Pulak Sparsh, Aditi Shahi and Aayush Jha, all final year students of CNLU, received a job offer of Rs 7 lakh per annum from Pangea. "The average annual package offered here is Rs 5 lakh and companies mostly visit the campus during January-end and February," said Ajay Kumar, placement in charge (faculty), CNLU.

The Central University of Bihar (CUB), currently located on the BITP campus, mostly offers courses of general nature. Its students were placed in some non-government organizations (NGOs) and industries last year. "We usually organize a 'Development Meet' in March, where students are picked up by NGOs or companies working in development sectors. Since not many professional courses are taught here currently, students also go for NET and CSIR exams," said Janak Pandey, vice-chancellor, CUB.

Another institute that prides itself on 100% placement is National institute of Fashion Technology, Patna (NIFT-P). "The average annual package offered to undergraduate students is about Rs 3 lakh, whereas postgraduate students receive somewhere between Rs 4-4.5 lakh. NIFT centres have centralized placements and for the current batch, campus selection would start from January 29, 2013," said Sanjay Srivastava, director, NIFT-P.

NIDian wins I-Design Award

Date 29 Nov 2012 12:33:25 IST , Times of India    Tags: Fashion Design

A product design student from National Institute of Design bagged the award in the 'Medical Equipment and Devices Design' category for 2012-13 with three other recipients in the I-Design Award competition in Chennai. Every year, products that focus on innovation, technology, design and creativity are recognized by the awards.

Malav Sanghvi of NID had participated in the competition with his project 'Walking Aid support stick'. "There is a need for design inputs in the field of amputation and prosthesis. I emphasized on the needs of the persons with disability to

use of the hand's muscular power to operate the leg by a strategically designed stick. The aid can be used for physical ailments like weak leg muscles, muscle tear, ligament tear, knee problems, paralysis, short foot and prosthesis training," he said. The stick is strapped on the leg, thigh, below knee, ankle and one of the forearms. The high point of the design is adjustability of straps by which the user transfers maximum force from the hands to the legs. tnnThe compactness of the device allows for easy packaging and subsequent ease in transportation and storage. The strap can be rotated, thus allowing the stick to be used on both legs, said Sanghvi.

Ahmedabad designers shine at NID's pan-India contest at NID

Date 30 Nov 2012 13:41:11 IST , Times of India    Tags: Fashion Design

A team from Acharya Institute of Technology, Bangalore, won the maiden edition of Bosch-NID India Changers industrial design competition, organized at National Institute of Design (NID) on Thursday.

The awards have been constituted to encourage young designers to come up with socially relevant innovations. Three out of four winners were from NID Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar.

The first prize was conferred to 'eBelaku' project by Sanal Kuriakose, Madhusudhana K.P & Yashwanth Kumar B.V, students of Acharya Institute of Technology, Bangalore.

The project is a self-sufficient street lighting solution that runs on wind and solar energy and has utilities such as umbrella and drinking water tap embedded. The team won Rs 1 lakh cash prize.

Aditi Agrawal, a student of NID Ahmedabad, won the second prize for her concept 'Tri-goody Modular Bench' where three-pronged benches made out of low-cost material for sitting in public spaces can be utilized in a number of ways due to its unique shape.

Two students of NID - Sougat Hota and Sneha Ashok were given a joint third prize. Hota presented a concept of ergonomically designed toilets for the Indian Railways where the normal urinal can be converted into a full-fledged toilet with click of a button.

Ashok's project was about community trash bins for better hygiene, safe waste disposal and separation of recyclable and non-recyclable waste.

The judges included Vijay Pandey, vice-president, Bosch Power Tools Division, Michael Foley of Foley Designs, Satish Gokhale of Design Directions and Vijai Singh Katiar of NID.

Judges said that they were happy with the out of the box thinking that was relevant to contemporary social issues such as power saving, better public facilities and hygiene at the same time.