INDEA established as India’s first automotive design school based in Delhi

The Indian School for Design of Automobiles (INDEA) is India’s first automotive design school, and is set to begin operations in 2026. Developed by XLRI’s Centre for Automobile Design & Management (XADM), the design school will focus on developing a uniquely Indian design philosophy for the automotive sector, says Avik Chattopadhyay, Founder of INDEA and Chairperson of XADM.

The 'Groundbreaking' and 'Foundation Stone Laying' ceremony was held at the XLRI Delhi-NCR campus on June 16, in virtual attendance of Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, XLRI Delhi-NCR director Dr. K.S. Casimir, and Avik Chattopadhyay.

• INDEA courses will not be in a traditional classroom arrangement
• Final term project to be a a working prototype that is collaborative
• INDEA curriculum, classes, courses and more
• CAD, 3D modeling, clay modeling, and a number of other skills that will be imparted
• Behind the vision is XLRI's new school, which will depart from the traditional classroom mode.

"What we are constructing is not a classroom; we are constructing a working studio," Chattopadhyay stated. "From paper sketching, to CAD, to 3D modeling, to clay modeling to scale, to 1:1 clay modeling, to prototyping — all will be learned there." The course would have management and design incorporated into it and taught by practitioners from around the world. "Number one is design plus management. Number two is practitioner taught. And number three, it's in a working environment," he said. "There are not class rooms in school, only a single big hall where the 25 students will be seated. Otherwise, they will be in the room working on clay modelling, the CAD-CAM room, the prototyping workshop, or the additive manufacturing lab."

First year to have 25 students with faculty from Japan, Germany, and India

The Centre will start in the first year with 25 students and teachers from Japan, Germany, and India. The students will complete the two-year program through the process of working together on a working prototype. "Your last term is going to be an assignment where all 25 students in a batch come up with a working prototype. Create it. Show it to the world," he declared.

Call for an Indian design school

'Make in India' will be doomed to fail if put alongside 'Design in India', feels Chattopadhyay

Chattopadhyay focuses on India beyond 'Make in India.' "'Make in India' won't be successful unless you pair it with 'Design in India', he said. "As long as you don't treat a design as an investment, you'll always treat it as a cost. We treat production engineering as an investment, we treat a new assembly line as an investment. Why not design the same way?

Building an Indian design identity

To him, it is a journey to develop an Indian design identity that may span decades, possibly even three decades. "Perhaps three decades from now we can be creators of something so called Indian Design DNA, very distinctive way of designing something or very distinctive way of seeing mobility, which is very Indian," Chattopadhyay described.

Chattopadhyay equated the aim to the way Italian cars are identifiable independent of the brand. "Even if you remove the Ferrari or Lamborghini logos and tell people where in the world this is from, they'll most likely guess Italy. There's something about their design language that's beautifully stereotypically Italian.". There is a bit of edginess to Italian style, and you need to study the Romans at a cultural level in order to understand why Italians build their machines the way they do, be it a tractor, a car, or a motorcycle. That's why a Cagiva does not resemble a BMW.

Chattopadhyay feels that Indian culture is already rich enough on an aesthetic level to produce an original car vocabulary. "We have it in our architecture, our food, our music, our art, our clothes, so why can't we have it in our cars?" he asked. "I'm not saying that it has to look very Indian, but very subliminally, the Indian design DNA has to seep in, maybe in the way you design your interiors, the kind of materials you use.".

Chattopadhyay also wishes industry players will appreciate the business value of good design. "Design is not necessarily costly. If you get it right, design is very lucrative," he emphasized. "Consider Tata Punch: People purchase it primarily due to its design, both exterior and interior. And you're selling mountain loads and mountain loads of this vehicle. So you're making profits."

He also stated that India requires better coordination between automakers, studios, and research organizations to be capable enough to explore its design potential fully. "Whether it is an automaker, a studio, or a research organisation — that coordination is very much needed to support our own strength in design," he further stated.