XLRI Delhi-NCR to set up automobile design and management school

INDEA will be offering various programmes, from a Master’s in Automobile Design & Management to refreshers for practising designers and inductions for CXOs.

XLRI has announced the setting up of the ‘Indian School for Design of Automobiles’ (INDEA), a school for automobile design in India in association with XLRI alumnus and automobile industry expert Avik Chattopadhyay.

The three pillars of INDEA will be balance of intuition and industrial knowledge; rich industry interface and, exposure to global thought and application, XLRI said in a statement.

INDEA will be offering various programmes, from a Master’s in Automobile Design & Management to refreshers for practising designers and inductions for CXOs. Seminars, master-classes and workshops will also be planned as part of the annual calendar. A programme in Automobile Restoration is also proposed.

The Masters in Automobile Design & Management will be a 1-year post-graduate programme with intake of 20-25 students every year from all graduate schools through a screening process. Details of the curriculum are being finalised. The school will be operational by the end of 2025.

INDEA will also be guided by a mentor board which has professionals such as Gautam Sen, automotive journalist and author, XLRI alumnus of 1984, Justice Indira Banerjee, ex-judge of the Supreme Court of India, expert on corporate and constitutional law, and IV Rao – distinguished fellow at TERI and ex-Director Engineering at Maruti Suzuki India, the statement added.

“XLRI strongly believes in ‘For the Greater Good’ and we work for the greater common good in shaping the management education sector and the community at large. We felt the acute need to support India’s ambitions to be a design hub and resonate with Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji’s emphasis on the need for a paradigm shift and the vision of aiming for the day when people across the world want to buy a car 'designed' in India. Our effort with ‘Indian School for Design of Automobiles’ is to bridge the gap for skilled designers who also understand the nuances of management and customer preferences creating well-rounded professionals for the Indian Automotive industry,” said Dr Fr KS Casimir, Director of XLRI Delhi-NCR Campus.