Photo Courtesy: nenow
Guwahati: Prof. Sudhakar Nadkarni died in Mumbai on Monday at age 88. He served as a titan of Indian design education for over six decades. He shifted the focus of design from applied art to a systematic tool for social and developmental problem-solving.
Born in 1938, Nadkarni studied at the Sir J. J. School of Art before heading to Germany in 1962. He attended the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm, where he developed his belief that design must prioritize human needs and national progress. He served as an associate professor at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad between 1966 and 1969.
He left a massive footprint at IIT Bombay. He helped launch the Industrial Design Centre there in 1969 and led that facility for 18 years. He also started the first postgraduate programs in Product and Communication Design in India. In 1997, he established the Department of Design at IIT Guwahati. He wrote the school’s first undergraduate curriculum and pushed students to use local resources like bamboo and cane for hospital and school furniture.
Later in his career, he connected creativity with corporate strategy. He launched a two-year MBA program in Business Design at WeSchool in Mumbai. His work ensured that design thinking became a standard academic discipline across the nation.
His family will hold final rites at 3:30 pm Tuesday at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Park electric crematorium. Industry leaders credit his long career for changing how India views industrial development. As one tribute noted, Nadkarni was "a pioneer of design education in India who helped establish the Department of Design at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati."
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