Titan Company Limited, the lifestyle firm belonging to the Tata Group, on Friday launched the ‘Design:Impact Awards for Social Change’ in collaboration with Tata Trusts. The focus will be on building innovative product designs that resolve social issues, the award platform is a movement that advocates efficient and sustainable product design for social change, the company said in a statement after announcing the initiative.
Titan aims to identify and mentor product design innovators who would like to upscale their products’ reach to a larger community.
The grand jury panel for Titan’s Design:Impact Awards includes Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, one of
India’s most eminent scientists and former Director General of the Council of Scientific Industrial Research; Prof. Anil Gupta, globally renowned grassroots innovations scholar and founder of the Honey Bee Network, Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and pioneer in Industry Academia interaction towards R&D, Innovation and Product Development; Padma Shri V.R. Mehta, Trustee, Sir Dorabji Tata Trusts; Mr. Harish Bhat, Brand Custodian, Tata Sons and Mr. Ramji Raghavan, well-renowned India-based social innovator and entrepreneur and Founder and Chairman of Agastya International Foundation, among others.
“In the last 30 years, our efforts at Titan has been towards creating exemplary design for generations of Indians. Our partners, Tata Trusts, have been a catalyst in transformational change in India with a focus on sustainable development through innovation, since the early 1900s. Now, with the Design:Impact Awards, together we aim to celebrate product design that brings about social change. We will jointly use our design experience and social sector connect to help innovators make an impact wherever they are needed the most,” Bhaskar Bhat, Managing Director, Titan Company Limited, said at the launch in Bengaluru.
V.R. Mehta, Trustee, Sir Dorabji Tata Trusts, said the initiative was aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship also. “Our partnership with Titan’s Design Impact Awards is part of Tata Trusts’ larger vision to demonstrate how technology and innovation can massively leverage the efforts to make a positive difference in the lives of the communities. As part of this initiative the Foundation for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship (FISE), Tata Trusts, and Titan, aim to tap entrepreneurs and innovators having a strong focus on addressing development sector challenges to create social change and remain engaged with them throughout their product lifecycle stages.”
Applications must be submitted via the Application Form available on www.designimpactawards.in, by 31st October 2017.
