India and Mexico Bet on Design for Outsourcing

With growth slowing in the IT outsourcing market, India is looking to further develop a labor force and infrastructure equipped to perform design-oriented tasks. According to a report in The Economic Times, the country last week laid a cornerstone for what will become a 30-acre campus housing a National Institute of Design in Hyderabad.

Union Minister for Commerce Anand Sharma said the goal is “building on our traditional knowledge skills and capabilities” to produce graduates qualified to work in a variety of design fields, including industrial design, civil aviation, animation and interior design. It hopes to graduate some 15,000 designers in the next five years.

According to Sharma, the school will have partnerships with the country’s National Institute of Fashion Technology and Footwear Design and Development Institute.

There appears to be similar thinking in Mexico, where in September an industrial park in Guadalajara was innagurated in hopes of luring the likes of Pixar, ESPN and Nintendo.

Government officials believe the Ciudad Creativa Digital or Creative Digital City (CCD) will create up to 20,000 jobs in media and technology, a large number of which will hopefully go to local companies. In addition, it should yield supporting jobs in the construction and service industries.

Guadalajara, which is often called “Mexico’s Silicon Valley,” beat out 11 other Mexican cities to win the CCD, based largely on its existing technical infrastructure, a large pool of technical and creative talent, attractive labor costs and availability of a suitable site. The city is already headquarters for software development companies involved in multimedia pursuits such as gaming, including Kaxan.

While the entire project could take a decade or more to construct, planners said a fiber optics ring should be installed this year, as well as the first creative offices and parking facilities.

This article was first appeared in NSAM sister publication Global Delivery Report.