Mahendra chauhan is currently heading the watch design team for brand Titan.He is a Product Designer from NID Ahmedabad and architect from NIT Raipur. He has been working fror more than 14 years designing consumer durable and life style products. His work has been produced in many countries and he has won many presigious national and international award in product design. More recently he has been awarded red dot design award for designing world's slimmest watch for Titan 'edge'.

His works have been published in leading international books and design websites.His work is displayed at red dot design museum in essen and singapore.He had also won rado design excellence award and design boom award for innovative product concepts.Apart from designing lifestyle products, he has designed interiors, residences and bicycles for BSA and hercules brand.He also talk at the CII Design Summit, and other conferences & Seminars on Design Thinking.

Mahendra is playing a very strategic role in defining Titan'S watch design stratgey by leading and managing complete watch portfolio of brand Titan, nebula, raga, Zoop and xylys.He spearheads the team with a very positive attitude and belives that design diffrention can only happen if we understand the consumers. He Belives, ''design begins with sensitivity , curiosity and passion. To excel in any field one needs to be passionate about it; sensitive to the end users and curious about the new things''.

Principal Engineer
Global Design, GE Healthcare,
John F Welch Technology Center , Bangalore, India

Mahendra holds Masterss Degree in Product Design from IDC, IIT Bombay and has over 27 years of experience in leading strategic research & development, product / user experience design & product innovation programs in various industries including consumer products, industrial systems and healthcare. Mahendra has filed over 30 patents & defensive IP publication at GE.

Mahendra is also an experienced internal faculty offering corporate training programs and an experienced facilitator of design thinking and customer co-creation workshops at GE Healthcare.

His current responsibilities include creating affordable healthcare solutions for global healthcare needs, supporting worldwide technology plan / NPI roadmap development and drive end-to-end user and patient experience.

Design professional with proven leadership mettle in Industrial Design with reputed organizations. 14+ years of rich hands on experience in product and packaging design, visual communication design, branding, Product portfolio management, brand visual architecture, graphic design and strategic design with a portfolio of high profile projects for India's leading brands. Having Experience of establishing full-fledged design studio and building strong team of design & engineering professionals to deliver best-in-class design solutions to key accounts in Mumbai. Proactive, creative, committed professional with an outstanding career of delivering superior results through effective communication, coordination, relationship building, strategizing, planning and execution.

As founder & director of Designlipi Projects Private Ltd, he initiated the 1st Professional Design House based out of Kolkata in entire eastern part of India offering services in Strategic Design, Branding & Communication, Product Design, Packaging Design and Design for Retail Experiences. Presently having a team of 6 and clients like ITC, Exide, Godrej Appliance, Godrej Locks, Godrej Construction, Godrej Natures Basket, Godrej PRIMA, Eveready Industries Ltd., Punjab Sind Dairy, Lightkraft etc. Won IDESIGN Award 2012 for designing innovative mosquito repellant device & applied for 1 patent in 2013 and having several design registrations.

Sonia Manchanda is the cofounder and Principal Designer of Idiom, an integrated design practice, and creative chief and cofounder of DREAM:IN, a global initiative and venture that has been recognized as one of 6 global gamechangers by Metropolis magazine and received CII Design Excellence award for website design, besides being the winner in overall category for Interaction Design.

Sonia has been invited to showcase DREAM:IN at Curitiba, Brazil, at Designing for Billions at Parsons NY, at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven and several other prestigious forums.

Sonia is a design thinker and practitioner, deeply involved with developing businesses, brands and experiences. Besides developing talent and actively spreading design as a way of thinking and doing things. She is a graduate of National Institute of design, Ahmedabad and has trained in visual communication, design, filmmaking and photography.

DREAM:IN proposes a shift in focus of design from needs to dreams and has partners and practitioners amongst Universities, design academicians and students, thought and business leaders and has been replicated in Brazil and China. Most recently, finding a place for itself in Bruce Nussbaum's new book, Creative Intelligence.

Idiom has worked extensively in emerging sectors like education, retail and healthcare, closely with Indian entrepreneurs and also on global assignments. Besides developing many resilient businesses and brands, Sonia and Idiom have championed one of India's first Public Private Partnership movements for change in a global Indian city and the design and look of the 19th Commonwealth Games.

Mr. Sushant Jena is the Vice President of Design and Development at T.I. Cycles of India, a unit of Tube Investments of India Ltd. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and Post-Graduation in Industrial Design from the National Institute of Design - Ahmedabad. Before Joining TI Cycles he has worked at Whirlpool Corporation as the design head for India Studio, National Institute of Design as Consulting Designer and AT Design Company Japan as a Designer.

He has a varied professional experience ranging from leading design team for an MNC to education & consulting in the field of appliances, automobile, education and entertainment. He has rich experience in leading design for Product as well as Brand Design strategy through strong embedded processes.His designs have won a lot of international awards like Good Design, Sparks Design, IF Design, Product of the Year, etc.Several of his designs arepatented for design innovations.

Other than Core area of design he has a lot of experience in processes development for business, he is a mentor for innovation and business processes. He is an invited speaker at Universities, conferences & events on the subject of Design. He has also conducted several workshops for Schools and Universities on varied subjects ranging from social relevance to Design practices.

Vasant Dewaji graduated from the national institute of design in 1992, after completing his engineering. He has worked for over 20 years in area of consumer design in the product and retail space across categories like travel goods and accessories, elevators, watches, white goods and bicycles.
He currently manages design and development at VIP Industries Ltd. He also takes out time each year to teach at design schools in India.

Darshita Thaker is the Founder and CEO of Kreo Design and Innovation headquartered in Bangalore, India. Kreo is a multidisciplinary design firm with innovation inspired approaches and works with some of the most notable brands across the globe converting ideas into experiences and strategies.

Darshita is a visionary leader who leads her team to provide innovative and high-on quality creative business ideas and strategies for clients across verticals, industries and geographies. Her hands-on approach combined with a self-starter DNA has led her and her firm to execute award winning projects.

Darshita brings 15 years of experience in the multi-disciplinary design domains, along with deep understanding of branding and design spectrum, which has further facilitated Kreo’s exponential growth. As head of the company, her ability to understand and translate client requirements into precise design briefs for teams is an uncanny ability – which always leads to satisfied work outputs and excellent client responses. One of her key strengths is to understand the client’s business goals and align design solutions according to them. That apart, her tenacity to lead by example, makes her a formidable idea creator and agile innovator. Her vision for Kreo is to take Design in India to the World – a credo which has already been put into motion by opening the first office in Amsterdam.

Before founding Kreo, Darshita worked across industry majors like Reliance Retail, Hypercity, Puma and Walmart donning leadership roles. She went on to create one of India’s first largest boutique hypermarket building high-octane shopping experiences for customers to enjoy. She then went on to create 700 plus stores where she contributed to create immersive experiences that not only enriched the users but also the business. Her experience and in-depth knowledge across diverse industry verticals is the driving force behind Kreo, helping it build and nurture some of India’s most iconic brands.

Darshita Thaker was the youngest CEO to represent the design space for the prestigious India-Italy tech summit round table, which saw the presence of both the country’s Prime Ministers. She offered her thoughts in creating policies and reforms to better suit both nations.

Darshita is an alumna of National Institute of Design with a Bachelors degree in Interior Architecture and a Post Graduate degree in Lifestyle Accessories Design. Her disposition towards functional design has helped propel Kreo to the outperforming success. In her spare time, Darshita loves to explore cultures through travel.

CEO | Chief Creative officer | Co-founder

With 16+ years of experience, Tanay currently spearheads Fractal as the CEO and Chief Creative Officer. With a strong focus and vision to take Digital Experience design in India to the global level he grew Fractal from a 7 people company in 2010 to strong team of 85+ in the last 6 years. In the last few years he has helped many companies build their digital roadmaps and architected their digital products. While a mentor to many UX groups and design incubators around in the country, he also helps educational institutions in formulating their design curriculum around industry.

An Industrial Designer from the National Institute of Design, Ahmadabad, India, Ashish started his design entrepreneurship journey, 30 years ago, by co-founding India’s pioneering design practice, Elephant. Elephant today is present in India as well as Singapore.

Ashish leads Product & Retail Experience Innovation group and has lead projects ranging from consumer appliances related to air, water & energy, medical equipment, wearable electronics, IoT, automotive and retail. Ashish has worked with CIIE, Intel and T-Hub Hyderabad to mentor start ups through Design Thinking and conducts workshops on Growth by Design & Product Innovation and has been invited to speak at International conferences and conduct workshops in India & abroad.

Ashish is President, Association of Designers of India, an active member of the Design Alliance Asia and is on the jury of India Design Mark. He has served as appointed member of the 2nd. India Design Council and was invited to attend Good Design Mark Jury process, Japan. Ashish has been on the Product Design Jury at Cannes Lions as well as Taiwan International Student Design Competition and was President Jury of Lexus Design Awards India 2019. He is an Independent Director appointed to the Board of Directors of Symphony Limited.

Studied architecture from BKPS College of Architecture, Pune, in 1971 and further completed postgraduate studies in furniture design – from National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.

Shrikant Nivasarkar is a principle architect of design consultancy organization “Nivasarkar Consultants”, established in Pune in 1978. He has overseen the growth of the practice from small & medium scale residential design to larger scale commercial, institutional and industrial projects.

Shrikant has a nation wide reputation as a designer closely connect to his roots. The result is a design that has a sense of place and highly experiential in nature. In 2009 he was invited to participate in a specially curated exhibition at Helsinki “ called Ecologycal Chair”, amongst 20 top designers around the world.

Apart from an extensive career spanning more than three decades, Shrikant is associated with various educational and professional associations in different capacities. He has been a member of the governing council of national institute of design between 2009-2011.

Currently he is a member of the governing council of College of Architecture- Trivandrum, Rachana Sansad- Mumbai, Member of the Board of Studies of School of Interior Design-CEPT University, member of the academic council of MIT School of Design, Pune and College of Architecture-Navarachana University- Vadodara. He is also a chairman of ad hoc board of studies of design of Pune University.

He has traveled widely around the world and lectured at various design forums and educational institutes. He has also been invited on various national and international competitions and awards as a member of the jury.

In the past he has been first Indian president of International Federation of Interior Architects (IFI) – a global apex body of the profession of interior design- during 2007-2009, of which he was earlier the executive board member during 2001-1007, and also been executive board member of international design alliance (2007-2009), President of Indian Institute of Interior Designers (IIID)- (2004-2006). Currently he is an invited member of India Design Council and the President of Pune Construction Engineering Research Foundation.

Having acquired a degree in engineering in 1986, V. Ravishankar enrolled into NID for a PG Diploma in Product Design. Twenty years later, he once again joined the institute as a faculty member in the Design for Retail Experience discipline.

At NID, Ravishankar offers courses in Design Basics, Design Methodology, Digital Product Design, Universal Design Module, Retail Store Design, and Visual Merchandising. He leads the NID Universal Design (UD) Initiative and set up a Universal Design studio, a Joint Competence Center in collaboration with University of Applied Sciences, Germany with the objective of generating content and formulating the curriculum for Universal Design in design education and research into Universal Design in India.

He has worked in the areas of object and space for over 18 years in domains such as IT Mobile Technology Voice Interfaces, Product Design, Retail Design and Visual Merchandising, Package Design for consumer products, and Design and Training in the indigenous craft sector. During his tenure from 2002-07, as the Empanelled Designer with the Office of Development Commissioner, Handicrafts, Government of India, he conducted Design and Development workshops for over 300 artisans across India. He has worked as a consultant to BPL Ltd., BPL Innovision, Reliance Web World and Infosys Technologies Ltd. and worked for SPIC Group, Chennai, Levi Strauss India, HMT Watches Ltd., Rain Design, Hyderabad and Oriole Design, New Delhi.

Ravishankar is a co-author in the formulation of the Universal Design India Principles. He was awarded the NID-Business World Design Excellence Award in 2006.

Shribalkrishna Patil, an Innovation Strategist, business designer and product developer with 3 masters in technology, business and human space along with 10+ years of experience in applying design thinking in diverse domains.

He is a multi-functional hybrid thinker with knowledge and experience of transforming insights grounded at the intersection of technology, business, and human psychology into innovative strategies and offerings that lead to revenue growth. Helping entrepreneur’s, startups and organizations to transform their nebulous ideas into breakthrough innovative businesses, products, experiences, and brands are what inspires him.

He has contributed to more than 75 different projects in both local and international markets, companies including but not limited to P&G, Sony Ericsson, Philips, GSK, Godrej, Orient Electricals, Pilldrill, Clear2O, Borosil, Educational initiative etc. While working on these diverse and challenging projects, has acquired a deep experience of handling innovation and incubation processes in diverse domains.

He has earned three Master’s in Technology and Business Studies, after completing engineering degree; first Master’s (M.Sc. (Eng.)) is from The University of Liverpool in Product Design and Management. Second in Integrated Product Design from Delft University of Technology (M.Sc. (Eng.)) And an MBA in Design Strategy (M.B.A) from California College of Arts.

Shashank Mehta is a principal faculty of Industrial Design at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. Currently, he is the Activity Chairperson of the Institute's Faculty Development Programme. He is also the member of NID's Policy and Planning Committee.

Shashank is also the project head of the Design Clinic Scheme for MSMEs, a unique and ambitious design intervention scheme for the country's large MSME sector. Supported by the Ministry of MSMEs, Government of India, with the total project outlay of Rs. 73.4 crore the scheme targets to reach out to 200 MSME clusters through organization of Design Sensitization Seminars, Design Awareness Programmes and Design Projects.

A qualified mechanical engineer and product designer, Shashank has also added to his professional expertise by working as an engineer, designer and production in-charge with small and large scale industries and the craft and social sectors as well. He has worked on several projects, ranging from consumer products, medical equipment, furniture & Interiors, public utility, to grassroots innovations. Shashank has worked with the industries as designer, design consultant and also as consultant retainer. All this, coupled with sharp business acumen, he acquired that much needed holistic understanding of integrating user aspirations with industry constraints and demands, thus introducing viable design solutions.

Over the years Shashank has taught at the Undergraduate and Postgraduate levels, spanning various design disciplines. He has spearheaded the introduction of new course modules, that are in sync with the rapidly changing demands and aspirations of the industry and economy in general. Shashank has extensively worked in the area of technology and design fusion, sustainability and indigenous innovations. He has authored various articles and research papers and has widely lectured on these subjects. He was involved in conceptualising the first e-learning module on package design and also helped set up the country's first Design Business Incubator at NID. Shashank anchored international workshops with the specific focus on 'design for development' for the participants from various developing countries. In 2005, Shashank organized and co-anchored the first of its kind International conference on Design education in Asia - Design Education: Tradition and Modernity, DETM05. Besides being actively involved in imparting design education at NID, Shashank has held several important administrative positions at the Institute. He also serves as the member of various advisory committees and review committees for various international conferences.

Graduate of NID, Satish co-founded the Award winning design firm - Design Directions in 1988.

Recipient of several local and international awards and 'I' Mark recognitions. Recently one of his products - MiraCradle - a Neonate Cooler was awarded the President's award for Successful Commercialisation of Indigenous Technology.

Satish has been a jury member on several design award committees - local and overseas. A founder member of the Association of Designers of India (ADI). He has been invited to speak at several National & International Design conferences.

Satish acts as a jury member, part of several committees and has been invited to speak at various conferences globally related to design.

Senior Manager, International Relations
Japan Institute of Design Promotion

Born in 1968 in Yokohama. Got employed by Mitsukoshi Department Store in 1990, after graduating from Keio University, the Faculty of Literature. After the career at the ladies accessory department shop floor, appointed as buyer of imported food and accessories from UK and contributed to establish brand business. Managed whole process of branding, merchandising as a buyer.

In 2010, joined Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization (currently Japan Institute of Design Promotion) as an international promotion manager and has executed several Japanese design promotions in various countries such as India, China, Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Turkey and Mexico.

In 2015, also graduated from Musashino Art University, the Department of Arts Policy and Management.

David Abraham is the creative director of Abraham & Thakore, one of India’s leading resources for fashion and textiles. A graduate of the National Institute of Design, he is interested in exploring contemporary expressions of traditional Indian craft and in developing a design vocabulary that is restrained yet diverse. His practice is closely concerned with the role of identity in fashion, particularly in contemporary India.

Abraham & Thakore collections are retailed in India and overseas. Their designs have been acquired by the Victoria & Albert Museum in London for their permanent archives and have been displayed in multiple exhibitions on contemporary Indian design around the world.

Ranjan has led and facilitated innovation initiatives in a large number of organizations across countries. Organisations like Apple, Areva, APC, Bausch & Lomb, Bayer, Cable & Wireless, Glaxo SmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Honeywell, Microsoft, Mahindra Auto, Max New York Life, Novartis, Pepsico, Perfetti, Tata, Unilever and Whirlpool.

He has created innovation methodologies, frameworks and tools. Some of which are: the innovation evaluation architecture (used in the Forbes Applied Innovation Awards and Innovation for India Awards) and the 3C Spot-Fund-Nurture model used by NABARD in the area of Rural Innovation

As an innovation speaker, Ranjan is sought for his unique ability to pick unobvious insights, 'connect unusual dots' and present a compelling message in his characteristic spontaneous style. He delivers high-energy and insightful innovation keynotes, methodology sessions and also chairs conferences.

He has spoken at diverse forums like the European Conference on Creativity and Innovation - Warsaw and Copenhagen, Front End of Innovation - Amsterdam, American Creativity Association Conference - Singapore, Strategic Innovation Forum - Barcelona, The India Innovation Summit, National Brand Summit - AIMA, Asia HRD Congress, TEDx, The TiE World Summit, Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) and Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai (IIT)

Prior to his work in innovation, Ranjan spent a decade in advertising and marketing with organizations like J Walter Thompson (JWT), Lintas and Bharti. He is based in Bangalore, India