Elias is an alumni of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. He joined TVS Motor Company in 1995 and worked as a motorcycle designer till 2000. He was actively involved in the in-house development of Spectra scooter, Shaolin and Victor motorcycle during that period. Since 2000 to 2004 he left TVS and worked as a senior UX designer in Planetasia.com and subsequently as founder and Head of Design at Axiom Consulting Bangalore specializing mainly in the field of transportation and product design. Since 2004 he rejoined TVS Motor as Head of Design for all business verticals, which included domestic India, ASEAN, 3Wheeler and International program requirements. The major model brands he has helped conceptualize and develop are Apache RTR, Scooty, Wego, Star series, Neo, Rockz, Tormax and TVS King, which have found success in domestic and international markets.

Shekhar Badve is the Co-founder and Director- Strategy and Marketing of Lokus Design Pvt. Limited.

He has a rich experience of 15+ years in Design Innovation and Strategic Design. Currently he leads a Strategy and Brand Consulting Company. This long rich experience consists of Cross Functional Design, Packaging Innovation and Brand Management, Insights Research and Communication Design. His innovation initiatives and vast experience of managing assignments include strategic guidance, developing foresights, and applying design thinking for multifaceted communication and design challenges for highly competitive industries. He thrives on creating mesmerizing work with the goal of being highly successful for his clients. Having this experience under his belt he had the honour of working with some the best global and domestic brands. As a Director; Strategy and Marketing- he is responsible for Lokus Design’s fast-growing operations, design consulting business, key account and reputation Management.

Passionate to inspire organizations to innovate, transform and grow using design, the tool for competitive advantage helps him go the extra mile – stretch and think out of the box.

Dipendra Baoni is an alumnus of Product Design from NID (National Institute of Design) and St Paul’s School, Darjeeling and is the Founder and Managing Director of Lemon Design.

A Design entrepreneur, Dipendra started Lemon immediately after his NID education and since then has been engaged in transforming Lemon from a graphic design studio to an awardwinning Integrated Design Consultancy - offering Strategy, Branding, Packaging, Retail & Space Design, UX & Interaction Design, Industrial Design and Mobile & Web Technology to its various clients in the public & private sector, both in India and Globally. Some of the clients include RBI, GJEPC, Hindustan Times, Reuters, Airtel, TVS Lucas, Bharat Forge, Park Avenue, Portico, Faasos, My Dentist amongst many others.

In 2006, Dipendra became Director of Bisquare Systems a NOIDA based Product Design & Development Firm to offer UI & UX Design & Industrial Design and has clients like Department of Post, DRDO (Wesee), Canon, Moser Baer amongst others.

In 2009 he co-founded a company called ECCO Electronics driven by Design & Technology convergence to create/identify unique marketplace opportunities that address real world problems and create compelling value propositions for users and stakeholders that are affordable, eco-friendly and efficient & sustainable. He is one of the Promoters of this company and looks after its Branding, Brand Strategy & Design and Product Strategy & Development.

He has won awards for his work from Audi International Design Competition. In 2010 he also won the National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities for the “Buddy Assistive Media Player” for the visually impaired from the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Government of India. In 2012 he won the CII-NID Design Excellence award for the “ECCODIVA” a Multi-purpose Solar Lamp for the coveted Overall Industrial Design Category, and the category of Electronics & Computers. Dipendra also teaches some courses at NID, DSK, MIT & SID, and is a jury member for diplomas offered to Student. He also talk at the CII Design Summit, and other conferences & Seminars on Design Thinking.

B Bhaumik is a Mechanical Engineer followed by Post Graduate in Industrial Design from Industrial Design Center, IIT, Mumbai in 1972.  He belongs to one of the first batches of Industrial Designers in India. He has experience in the field of automotive styling, design, engineering and implementation spanning 40 years. He pioneered Automotive Styling at OEMs in India.

He has worked with a number of OE manufacturers, namely TELCO (now Tata Motors), Bajaj Auto, Kinetic Engineering and Mahindra & Mahindra.

His work includes styling, engineering and implementation of a range of Tata Trucks (Tata1516, Tata1210), Tatamobile Series of Vehicles, Bajaj Spirit, Bajaj Legend, Bajaj Saphire, Bajaj Chetak 4S, Mahindra Scorpio, Mahindra Xylo, Mahindra Genio, Mahindra Maxximo, etc.

His latest assignment has been piloting the Mahindra XUV5oo Project right from conceptualization to successful implementation.

At MAHINDRA & MAHINDRA LTD, he retired as Senior Vice President & Head of Product Development, Auto Division, on 31st March 2012. He was responsible for Styling, Engineering and implementation of all new as well as current vehicles in the Automotive Sector of M&M.

He is now working with Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd as Advisor, and is engaged in the area of Capability Development for Engineers engaged in Product Development.

Mr. Bhaumik has been involved with education of Industrial Design in India for over 30 years and has been in the Styling Committee of CII since its inception. He is also a member of first India Design Council.

Ashish is a graduate in Industrial Design from the National Institute of Design, Ahmadabad, India.
He started his design entrepreneurship, 23 years ago, by co-founding one of India pioneering design practices. Today he continues at Elephant Strategy + Design, an innovative multi-disciplinary design practice, ranked amongst the top 3 design consultancies in India by Brand Equity, Economic Times.
 
Ashish leads the Product & Retail Innovation group at Elephant but believes that design must not be narrowed into disciplines. He is known for his design work on evaporative air coolers, kitchen appliances, Medical diagnostic equipment and the award winning mechanical charger. He and his team at Elephant Design believe that the true merit of a project lies in its business success.
Ashish regularly conducts workshops on E4G business tool, Product Innovation Process and is a co creator of the design tool “ Psycho Experience Process ”. He is actively involved in supporting and promoting the Association of Designers of India.

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.

V. Ega is the Associate Vice President and Design Head at Godrej Interio. He has a M. Tech in Production (Mechanical Engineering) from I.I.T Mumbai and a B. Tech (Mechanical Engineering) from Sri Venkateshwara University, Tirupati.

His experience of 20 years in engineering design, technology adoption and product design at Godrej Interio has helped the brand in networking and collaboration of people from various functions to constantly evolve and develop furniture as a complete experience design.
He enjoys managing, motivating and building passionate environments for industrial designers to create products that can shape the future of this business. He has shaped the design team at Godrej Interio to develop contemporary furniture as lifestyle products for the relevant target customers.

Narendra Ghate is a Chief Designer at Tata Elxsi. He has interest in economics, design thinking and strategy.  He has a solid mooring in mechanical engineering followed by Product design education from IDC, IIT Bombay. He has an added business flavor with an Executive MBA from IIM Bangalore. He started career in Product design with stints at Unilever Design, Seymour Powel and Fitch in UK. Moved to Automotive styling with Stints in GM (Detroit), Ford (Germany), PATAC (China), Nissan (Japan). Shifted focus to Branding, Graphics and Retail. All the above assignments were part of the long continuing career in Tata Elxsi. One of the founding members of the ID (Industrial Design) division of Tata Elxsi. ID@Tata Elxsi with over 250 staff (more than 70 Designers) is one of the largest design agencies in India with operations in the US, Europe and Japan. His current role focuses on Innovation Portfolio, Marketing and General Management.

He has conducted Innovation workshops for Key customers in US, UK and India. He has given talks and held workshops in various design schools in India. He has been a Jury member of IF awards and Tata Innovista.

Settled in Bangalore with wife Dhanashri and 7 year old son Aarush.

A graduate of India’s premier design institute, National Institute of Design (NID), Mr. Gokhale and his firm Design Directions Pvt Ltd founded in 1988 by him and his better half - Falguni - also a graduate of NID Ahmedabad - combines design, technology, aesthetics and relevant materials to create a major impact on industrial, medical, electronic and consumer products. Design Direction's focus is on brand strategy, industrial design, visual communication and user interface design. Satish Gokhale is a recipient of several local and international awards. Mr. Gokhale has been a jury member on several design award committees and is a member of the India Design Council. He is on the education committee for MIT School of Design – Pune, India. He has been invited to speak at many National & International Design conferences. He is a member of the India Design Council and also a member of CII committee on design. Through his work, Mr. Gokhale has been able to raise a great level of awareness towards design in hard-core engineering sectors and prove to them by sheer market success, the importance and benefits of industrial design. He has till date, successfully designed and launched over 650 products in the Indian and international markets for a host of clients, ranging from the small scale sector to the heavy industry sector.

Prakash is a Mechanical Engineering graduate from VJTI Mumbai and a Product Designer from NID He heads Onio team for Product design and Product innovation assignments at Onio. He leads complex product innovation projects using proprietary methods of Creative Engineering and Technology Productization. He is primarily active in the areas of Consumer Appliances, Automotive & Hi-Tech applications of design. He has been instrumental in winning several awards for Onio, through the products he designed.

He has developed a network of product development partners and suppliers across India. He speaks on several forums related to innovation in SMEs, Design Engineering & User centered development. He also mentors many inventors and startups on Product Innovation.

He is a founder member of Association of Designers of India.

Mahesh Krovvidi is a Technical, Management and Industrial Design Professional over 33 years of successful leadership career spanning across USA and India.

Business savvy top management professional and well experienced with industry and diverse cultural practices of India, Americas and Europe.

He did M Tech in Production Engineering from IIT- Bombay and B Tech in Mechanical Engineering from Regional Engineering College, Warangal, India.

Lead Business Management Project teams for world leading consulting firms in USA over 5 years, which include, PwC (PriceWaterhouseCoopers) and Deloitte. He led and worked with people from diverse cultures, varied communication & emotions, multiple locations and time-zones across the world.

He is very successful in Team Building and Leadership, implementing System Design / BPR (business process re-engineering), Business / Technology Solutions and Change Management practices to enable best manufacturing and business practices. His domain includes engineering, manufacturing, industrial design and public design.

He is currently working as Chief Executive Officer, National Design Business Incubator (only design incubator in India), an initiative of NID, Ahmedabad and supported by Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. He turned around the incubator from two Designepreneurs to 37 start ups engaging more than 140 designers. He also manages USD 2.50 m venture ready fund for the start ups at the incubator, supported by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industries, Govt. of India.

He is also closely associating with National Innovation Council led by Mr. Sam Pitroda, to identify and plan Design Innovation Centers in India.

He is an Expert Member of India Design Council, constituted by ministry of commerce and industries, Govt of India. He was also Screening Committee Member for three years of TePP (Technopreneur Promotion Program), a national level program promoted by Department of Scientific & Industrial Research, Ministry of science & technology, Govt of India to support commercializing innovations.

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, 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. 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-learningmodule on package design and also helped set up the country’s first Design BusinessIncubator at NID. Shashank anchoredinternational 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.  

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 the member of India Design Council and the President of Pune Construction Engineering Research Foundation.

Shalini Pahwa, launched PR Works a Media Consultancy in 1999, dealing largely with businesses related to Design, Lifestyle, Art and Culture.  
She began her career as a journalist in 1989 with Living Media Ltd. and thereafter contributed to key publications of the Bennett Coleman Group as a regular freelancer, ‘Hindustan Times’, Media Transasia and overseas publications including ‘Her World’ and ‘The Star’ (Malaysian Publications) and coordinated editorial inputs from India for ‘Libas International’ magazine, as their country representative, for six years.
 
These assignments entailed exhaustive research based activity and also interactions with a wide spectrum of individuals including artists, CEOs, designers, healers, educationists, sociologists, senior government authorities, manufacturers, celebrities and achievers from different avenues of life.
 
Her other assignments included Creative Consultancy with Lintas and Nestle India’s in-house magazine through Mudra. scripting for TV programmes, writing childrens’ “play and learn” and fiction books for Frank Brothers, compilation of management documents related to the human resource department for leading companies and various enriching writing exposures.
 
Shalini was the Corporate Communication Consultant to National Institute of Design for 15 years and in that capacity coordinated coverage for the institute, its activities and various other design houses in India. PR Works coordinated the publicity of the  launch of the “I” Mark and “G” Mark exhibition in India and  also NID’s Design Excellence Awards with Business World. Attending the AOTS Japan The Training Program on Operation of a Design Award for India [ENDA], was a significant learning landmark.

Anuj Prasad, 47, is an alumnus of NID. After completing his B.Tech in Production Engineering and working for 5 years in Manufacturing and Design Engineering, in the industry, he decided to move on to pursue his creative career at NID. He completed his Masters in Industrial Design in 1993 and thereafter worked with HCL for 3 years. In 1996 he started the ID division of Desmania.

Desmania is now a leading multi disciplinary design company in the country, offering professional design services across the industry segments. With its core expertise in product, packaging, graphic and retail design, Desmania now offers Strategic Design Solutions that give measured business success to the clients. Desmania is the recipient NID-BW Design Excellence award and several Indiastar awards for FMCG Packaging. It has been rated as a top design company in India by Businessweek (US). Desmania has diversified in the area of Toy and Automotive Design, with a large integrated design studio in NCR Delhi, with a unique clay modeling facility for full-scale cars models.

Anuj has been a leading voice of Design in the country. He has been a member of CII’s National Committee of Design for the last 3 years. Anuj has also been an advisor to the GOI on implementing the Design Scheme for the MSMEs. He has been a speaker at various design forums in India and is a highly respected professional in the field.

Desmania has full services offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Gurgaon. It has partnered with Italian, German and Korean companies to offer high quality, end-to-end design solutions.

Rahul Sachdev is the Marketing manager for the Industrial design division of Tata Elxsi. In his current role, he is responsible for leading all strategic marketing initiatives across key global markets for the division. This includes Brand management, Advertising, PR, Events and Social media. Rahul is also an integral part of the corporate marketing team that drives all corporate marketing activities for the company.

He has over 11 years of experience in working with some of the leading International and National brands across the Design Services, Foods & Beverages, Technology, Retail, Automotive and Real Estate industry. Rahul holds a masters degree in Marketing and Brand management.

Suresh Sethi is currently the Vice President and Director Asia, Global Consumer Design, Whirlpool Corporation.  He is a Product Designer and has been working for 30 years designing products in consumer electronics and home appliances. His work has been produced in many countries and his designs have had successful re-runs in various parts of the world.

He has many facets, apart from doing mass produced product design he has design custom-built luxury yachts and has worked with Organic Architect and Indian Master Craftsmen for many years. His works have been published in leading international books and design magazines, such as DOMUS, MODO, Progetto Grafico. Suresh was appointed by Government of India as Member of the Advisory Committee of Urban Heritage Conservation, Mumbai, in 1992 and he was honored to be appointed to the ICSID roster of Design advisors in 1999.

Suresh has been a visiting professor and has led many workshops and seminars at the leading Design Schools in India and abroad. He was a tenured professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Industrial Design Centre, Mumbai, India. He later joined Nanyang Technological University as Associate Professor in the School of Art, Design and Media, where he held the position of the Director of NTU-Domus Academy Program and the Acting Chair of the School.

Abhijit studied at National Institute of Design, as a product designer is passionately focused on design for health+Wellbeing. His deep belief in Health+Innovations® that help products operate at a higher level as the most effective way to provide care and relief to patients across the globe has led him to innovate and design for over 10 years which transcends over various fields in Design. The design consultancy operates with a multidisciplinary strategic-creative group of designers, Strategist and engineers, supported by a variety of specialists.

Neodes, his design studio in Pune, India, is the recipient of the prestigious Medical Design Excellence GOLD award recently. His work has been cited in a range of prestigious journals such as Medical Device Design at Crossroads, MD + DI. He is actively involved in design promotion via design education as a visiting faculty, jury member for projects and as a project mentor at various design and engineering schools across India.

His mantra: Healthy Innovation is Healthy Business.

Ajay Tank is currently Vice President –Industrial Design at Usha Shriram Enterprises and has almost 20 years of experience in design of Comsumer Durables such as Home Appliances, Water Purifiers, Fans and Kitchen products.

After doing his Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engg. , he did his post graduation from National Institute of Design (NID) Ahmedabad in Product Design in 1994. Since then, he has designed several products for Usha Shriram which have been successfully launched in the Indian market and have also been exported to many countries. Products designed by him have become benchmarks in the appliance industry. He has designed the first table top storage type water purifier for the Indian market in technical collaboration with a German company, which won the Golden Peacock award for “Most Innovative Product” in 1999.

Ajay has interest in other fields of design such as furniture design, space design and automobile design. He has always worked on promoting use of design in the corporate sector. He has recently started an independent in-house design studio – “Eurolex Design Studio” which will offer design services to external clients other than Usha Shriram.

A mechanical engineer and a PG product design graduate from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, Vivek was highly inspired by his mentors to look at design differently as a tool to resolve issues of any complexity. Continuing with internship at Onio Design and Reva Electric Car Company he learnt the art of evaluating and selling design.

Soon, he chose to start his own business and today, runs a product design consultancy by his name in Mumbai. The vision of his company is, delivering design services to MSME sector industries. The base, for this consultancy stands strongly on an attitude to create meaningful change which will create a difference.

This fundamental proved correct when Vivek scored an honourable mention in the most coveted Red Dot Award – Product Design, 2012, for a very simple product – A Gas Sandwich Toaster. He firmly believes in imparting knowledge to the people he works with, to sensitize the audience and together give rise to a revolution that can bring about a change by design.

Abhijit Bansod, a National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad postgraduate, has been part of the new age design movement in India. After decade long experience with Titan Design Studio, he founded Studio ABD in 2008 to create an open platform to discover new facets of contemporary Indian Design.

Abhijit believes in celebrating creativity that combines fragments of Indian tradition with cutting-edge technology, and fuses cultural motifs and new age thinking. They conjure up sophisticated products that resonate with India’s rich past. Propelled by   humour, craft, rituals, people, situations and heritage of India, he creates products that speak a unique language- an Indian design vocabulary.

Dedicated to creating a whole and sustainable design experience for the users, Studio ABD focuses on fine-tuning details and expressing design all the way from product to packaging.  Studio ABD’s portfolio includes designing consumer products, packaging, branding, spaces and luxury experiences through lifestyle products. Studio ABDs work has won more than twenty national and international design awards including the Young Creative Entrepreneur (YCE) 2011 by British Council UK, RED DOT DESIGN AWARD 2010, Germany and Designer of the year Award, India in 2008.

Dr Amaresh Chakrabarti is a professor at the Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing (CPDM), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. Prof Chakrabarti has BE in Mechanical Engineering from University of Calcutta, ME in Mechanical Systems Design from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and PhD in Engineering Design from University of Cambridge UK. His synthesis software FuncSION won the commendation award at the ‘Design Application of the Year’ category of the 1994 UK Morgans-Grampian Manufacturing Industry Achievements Award Competition. After completing his PhD, Dr Chakrabarti led for ten years the design synthesis team at the Engineering Design Centre (EDC) – an EPSRC Centre for Excellence in Engineering Design Research at the Department of Engineering of University of Cambridge, before joining IISc. Prof. Chakrabarti founded IDeASLab – the first laboratory in India for research into design creativity, sustainability and product innovation. Professor Chakrabarti is a Member of the CII National Committee on Design, India. He is an Area Editor for Research in Engineering Design Journal (Springer), Regional Editor Asia for Journal of Remanufacturing (Springer), Associate Editor for AI in EDAM Journal (Cambridge University Press), and Advisory Editor for seven other international journals including Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy (Springer), Journal of Creativity and Innovation (Taylor & Francis), and Journal of Engineering Design (Taylor & Francis). He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Design Society, UK, Co-Chair for its Special Interest Group (SIG) on Design Creativity, and a Member of the Advisory Committee for its SIG on Computational Design Synthesis. Prof. Chakrabarti initiated the first series of research conference on design in India as Programme Chair for ICoRD. He has also been programme chair for 22nd CIRP Design 2012 conference, Co-Chair for AI in Design and Design Computing and Cognition Conferences and for the 1st International Conference on Design Creativity 2010, and a member of numerous Programme committees including for ICED, Design and IASDR Conferences. He has authored/edited 7 books, over 230 papers in international journals, conferences and book-chapters, and has 7 patents and 2 software copyrights granted/pending. With colleagues at the CPDM, IISc, Prof Chakrabarti has been instrumental in initiating the first research programme in design in India, and co-founded Virtual Reality Laboratory (VR-Lab) at IISc for exploring the use of virtual reality for product development. With Lucienne Blessing and Ken Wallace, Prof Chakrabarti developed DRM – the most widely used design research methodology in the world. His research interests include design synthesis, creativity, collaborative design, eco-design, knowledge management, design for variety, and design research methodology. Prof. Chakrabarti has been elected to an Honorary Fellowship of the Institution of Engineering Designers (IED), UK. Established in 1945 and Incorporated by Royal Charter in 2012, IED is the only peer body in the UK representing engineering and product design. Honorary Fellowship is the highest honour bestowed by the Institution. In its 67 years of history, Honorary Fellowship has been given to twenty four individuals only; Prof Chakrabarti is the first person based outside Europe or North America to have received this honour.

Sharad is a Post Graduate in Industrial Design from NID Ahmedabad. He received his BE degree in Electronics from Nagpur University. He was the Design Head of LG Electronics India. He has vast experience of working with consumer electronics companies like Electrolux India, and BPL India. His major expertise is in area of design management and styling of consumer durable products. He now runs his own consultancy and model making company.

He is the recipient of awards such as GOOD DESIGN ‘04 winning product, Electrolux Washing Machine and was awarded for SoreButts Cushion Design Competition 1988, RESNA (North America).

Alok Ghonsikar is Group Manager – Product Design, C&I Lighting, Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting Group.Alok is a Mechanical Engineer and a Post graduate in Product Design from India’s premier Design institute, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.Alok started his career with Thermax, Pune. Later, he worked with Studio Korjan, Ahmedabad as Industrial designer, designing Home appliances; and subsequently, with Kenstar as Manager -Product design, engaged in designing Kitchen Appliances.

Alok joined Wipro Lighting in 2000, and went on to Head the Product Design function in 2003. Alok has been instrumental in establishing Wipro lighting as a trendsetter in Lighting industry through Innovation and Design.Alok believes in blending technology, materials and processes to churn out new designs and implements ‘User-centered’ design approach to make products user friendly. Alok has effectively used Six Sigma in Product Design and Process.Alok has designed several category defining lighting systems for modern workspaces, industry, retail, street and urban lighting. He specializes in designing energy saving LED luminaires.Under his leadership, Wipro Lighting has earned several accolades in Product Design like the coveted Design Excellence Award by Business World – National Institute of Design, Design for Asia Award by Hong Kong Design Center and India Design Mark 2013 by India Design Council along with Good Design Awards, Japan.

Wipro Lighting also holds several Design Registrations to its name and has recently launched ‘Green by Design’ products anticipating the need of the moment.Alok has been on jury panel for India Design Mark 2013, Institute of Design, Pune.

Alok has participated in several Workshops like International Workshop on Ecological Product Design conducted by Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft e.V., Cologne, GermanyResearch Papers

Research paper ‘Design Changes of the Road Environment’ as a mode of Behaviour Modification for prevention of Road Crashes at a local level: An Analysis was published at Second World conference on Injury Control, Atlanta, USA.

Design professional with proven leadership mettle in Industrial Design with reputed organizations currently Sanbid runs a company Designlipi Projects Private Limited based out of Kolkata.

He has 11+ 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.

His experience extends to 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.

While working for Desmania, his design won the Business World - National Institute of Design Design Excellence Award for best retail package design for the secondary packaging design of Vicks Cough drops for P&G, 2006.

Zoeb is the Vice President and Head of Design at Piramal Glass Limited. He has a masters in design from IIT, Bombay which was preceded by Bachelors in Engineering from University of Pune. He had a career spanning almost two decades. Starting with N.R.Jasani, a reputed Modular Office Furniture system Manufacturer, where he was involved in designing numerous components and furniture accessories for modular office systems.

He worked with Scion International L.L.C. in Dubai a 200 million dollar group with 17 companies worldwide. The position involved the management of the company’s center of creativity and innovation in the perfume cosmetic, skin care and hair-care industry. It was here that he created more than 600 products.

Since then, he has continuously received valuable insight into the packaging world and the global fashion and lifestyle norms and trends during his numerous visits to exhibitions and events globally. Namely HBA New York (USA), COSMOPROF - Bologna (Italy), INTERCHARM – Warsaw (Poland), INTERCHARM Moscow (Russia), LUXEPACK Monaco (France), COSMEETING Paris, BEAUTY EURASIA Istanbul (Turkey), GULF BEAUTY Dubai (U.A.E.), INTERZUM -Cologne(Germany), Canada, Malaysia, Holland and Egypt.

In his present job he supervises design services in the areas of perfumes, cosmetics, toiletries, skin - care, pharmaceutical, liquor, beverage, exhibition design, point of sale, merchandisers, brand identity, logo and signages etc. including complete product design of package, decoration and printing including all accessories and their engineering. He has more than 2000 products on his portfolio today.

Paul Sandip is an award winning product designer/electrical engineer who re-defines everyday objects with his voluntary simplicity and eco-consciousness. He beautifully combines latent consumers needs with technology to churn out highly differentiated products which become conic Best Sellers.

He specializes in Product Innovation, Consumer Insight & Strategy, Color Trends, Styling and Creative Methods.

Paul initiated "Useful Art" a pursuit of excellence in turning daily-use products into desirable everyday objects by imagining and implementing creative methods and approaches to product design. The objects designed ranged from Electrical Accessories, Lighting, Furniture, Kitchenware, Tableware, Children/baby products, Toys, Stationary, Bath accessories to Footwear.

Useful Art has won several design awards including the most prestigious international recognition Red Dot Award in 2007& 2010. His work has been extensively published and exhibited internationally including the Triennale Museum in Milan, Ambiente Fair in Frankfurt, Red Dot Award Show in Singapore, Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong, Lite-On Awards Show in Taiwan, Design Korea Exhibition/Design Olympiad in Seoul and Alliance Francaise in Delhi. His work is held in permanent collections of the Danish Design Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark as an example of Design to improve life!

Born in 1974 in Shillong, India. With a background in bachelors’ degree in Mechanical Engineering went on to do a postgraduate in “Industrial Design” specialized in “Furniture Design” from National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, India, in 1996-99.

After graduating from NID joined a collaborative endeavor to form a special effects design house ”Digital Force” working for the Indian film and entertainment industry between 1999-2002. During this period worked on various projects in Special Effects, Production Design, Product development & Design in the area of camera and production rigs. Meanwhile also worked as an assistant cinematographer.

2002-2004 joined NID, Ahmedabad as faculty. He was part of the core team to formulate the new postgraduate program in lifestyle accessory design. There after he has been a visiting faculty to various design schools in India.

In 2004 founded “Sangaru Design Studio” working with Craft design, furniture design, industrial design, photography, documentary filmmaking, Special effects production design and a visiting faculty to various design institutes in India.

Being multidisciplinary, he explores different Mediums and Materials. Since inception his studio has been actively involved with the Craft Sector working with local people with local material to create global products, this is exciting and creatively satisfying. Craft has always been a need based process from ages and using design to interface the skills of the artisans is something he wants to work towards.

2010 he founded Sangaru Design Objects Pvt. Ltd.. a company that will design, manufacture and market furniture, products and accessories for contemporary urban Home, Work and Play will “Bring together traditional knowledge & skills in crafts with design & technology to make objects of daily use invaluable, accessible and enjoyable”

Teaching always is a refresher and he enjoys it. Photography and Filmmaking are his passion and tries to create an opportunity to explore these mediums to document the fascinating “Way of Life” in different Regions.

Chetan Sorab is currently the head of design for home electronic products at LG Electronics India Pvt. ltd. He is an industrial designer with 13 years of rich industry experience in automotive and electronic industries. He graduated in mechanical engineering and went on to do his post graduation in Product Design from the prestigious National Institute of Design.

He has been consistently delivering successful products under the LG brand with strategic inputs in new product development and design innovation. He is also a jury member and faculty for some of the leading design schools in India. His interests are in strategic design and design for emerging markets.

He has won many national and international awards, some of the accolades to his credit are Opus-Award, Elle Decor International Award, Red Dot award and Seoul International Award.