Nasscom, Facebook join hands to engage young entrepreneurs

The trade body of Indian IT firms Nasscom has joined hands with Facebook to build a product design initiative to engage young entrepreneurs in the country to become problem solvers and solution builders.

The Nasscom-Facebook initiative signed in Silicon Valley this week, would likely propel innovative thinking and approaches to build solutions in key sectors where technology could play a transformational role, Nasscom president R Chandrashekhar said.

''This is a joint initiative to catalyse the innovation ecosystem and to help design thinking. Today, we are at an inflection point where the industry is at the next phase of revolution and moving towards the whole startup and innovation part, which is coming on the heels of the two decades old of the growth of the services company,'' Chandrashekhar told PTI in an interview.

''When we are looking at these product companies, design becomes very important. The MoU is intended to help develop this ecosystem and bring in the design thinking… The idea is to ensure that at least 500 plus product start-ups get enabled tools programs, more than 5,000 design thinking professionals to get paid and at least 50 or more award winning product should come out of this whole initiative,'' he said.

The partnership aimed to support 500+ product startups on product design and train 5,000+ product designers over a period of two years.

It would offer focused programmes to build awareness around product design, training on design tools, Design Lab, Awards, Design sprints and mentorship.

The initiative stemmed from the need to build design skills that would propel innovative thinking and approaches to build solutions in key sectors where technology could play a transformational role.

Chandrashekhar, said design thinking, methodologies and tools enabled solutions for complex and challenging issues and help re-imagine systems.

The Design Initiative would aim to diffuse a design culture across India's ecosystem, link up with academia, recognise outstanding designs and overall ensure India's software products delivered delightful customer experiences.