You can soon shop for spiritual fabric in this car with an umbrella

The NID, meanwhile, will treat the ‘select seven’ as incubatees, providing them with infrastructural help, monetary support and rented premises to work from. “It’s for the first time that the NID is trying to help designers market their ideas. All that they have to do is pay Rs 3,000 as rent per month for amenities provided by NID, which they can use for a maximum of 24 months. They can also utilise NID’s contacts and marketing skills,” says Prashant Kautala, Chief Operating Officer, National Design Business Incubator, NID.

The catch, of course, is that if the incubatees fail to market their ideas within two years, they will have to move out. “We hope this eventuality will never arise,” adds Kautala.

As for the incubatees, Bawankule wants to patent her chakla first, while Ashok Itagi from Kolhapur is hoping that his ‘spiritual textile’ will score a hit on the fashion circuit. ‘‘Itagi’s idea is in the incubation stage. The fabric will be developed in NID, using the resources available here,’’ says Kautala. ‘Spiritual’ textile, as Itagi prefers to call it, involves a process called micro-impregnation to impart that cool effect to the fabric.

Bangalore’s V P Vijaykumar, meanwhile, is working on his car umbrella, while Noida’s Gautam Malhotra has designed power-friendly street lights. Both will not be physically present at the NID facility, as they are employed in their respective home cities. But will get to utilise the institute’s funds and resources to develop their ideas.

Says Kautala, “Vijaykumar’s project needs a lot of intensive research. He has already spent Rs 15 lakh from his own pocket to develop a special heat-resistant fabric for the umbrella. But the expected cost of the project is Rs 55 lakh. Besides monetary help, he needs our labs and marketing strength once the project ends. Gautam’s prototype is ready and he needs help to work on it further.’’

The other two incubatees are Amit Paul, who is designing affordable playhouses for children in schools with limited space, and Prayash Abhinav, who is building a creative hub on the Internet.

Two outgoing students of the NID are also part of the initiative as they are close to translating their classroom projects into viable commervial ventures, adds Kautala. “We have chosen a mixed group of people as incubatees to cover the maximum we can within the resources available.”

‘‘Two of the seven incubations will end very soon. We will then look at new ones from the hundreds of ideas that are pouring in. Applications are even coming from abroad, but till now, we’ve restricted ourselves to national talent. We’ve even got some crazy ideas, with someone wanting to design a submarine that can link India and Sri Lanka and another trying to channelise energy from a ringing bell to light up villages. The talent is huge in this country. We have made a small start and there will be no dearth of incubatees.’’