The Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Suresh Prabhu inaugurated the Jorhat branch of National Institute of Design
National Institute of Design Image credit: www.nid.edu.in Representative image

The Union Minister of Commerce and Industry  Suresh Prabhu  inaugurated the Jorhat branch of National Institute of Design (NID) at Rajabari on Friday via video telecast.

Prabhu said that Jorhat had a rich heritage and culture for designs and that he believed that the creative talent and young design aspirants of North East would benefit from the opening of this Institute.

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“Jorhat NID envisions design education which will focus on creativity and innovation in the social, Health, livelihood and lifestyle sectors both in digital and indigenous technologies,” he said.

Prabhu further said that Designs in different spheres be they machines or fashion  had huge potential and would result in the youths with creative talent becoming self dependent if they took this as their career.

Director of the Institute VS Ravishankar said that admission process to the four year courses in Textile and Apparel design,  Communication design and Industrial designs for the academic year 2019-20 has been initiated with intake of 20 students each in the three branches.

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“After the NID  (Amendment)  Act is passed then the new NIDs will be able to award Bachelor degree certificates instead of the Graduate diploma certificates awarded now, ” he said.

The Jorhat NID is spread over 30 acres of land and has facilities like studios, It labs, workshops, library, mess and hostels for 233 students.

The National Design Policy had recommended the setting up of Design institutes in line with NID,  Ahmedabad following which four NID were set up in Amarawati,  Andhra Pradesh,  Bhopal,  Madhya Pradesh,  Kuruksshetra, Haryana and Jorhat.

The foundation stone of the Jorhat NID was laid on February  19, 2011 by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

There has been much delay in constructing the Institute due to land issues.

The land belonged to the Tocklai Tea Estate and laborers demanded adequate compensation before it could be acquired and construction begun.

 

Smita Bhattacharyya is Northeast Now Correspondent in Jorhat. She can be reached at: [email protected]