Bangalore, March 31: The National Institute of Design (NID) today opened its first research and development campus outside its home base of Ahmedabad.

Inaugurating the campus, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation director-general Kandeh K. Yumkella said in the days of growing globalisation, only those who keep pace with it will survive.

“Enhanced research capability will enable India to emerge as a global leader especially in information technology and biotechnology, the two niche areas that it is emerging strongly,” he said.

Stressing the need for giving more importance to research, Yumkella said global investors were looking forward for development in quality as well as design. This is where NID should encash the opportunity, he added.

The institute has set up this centre on a 2-acre plot off the Bangalore-Pune highway to create a platform where the fusion of creative design, technology, manufacturing and business take place to enhance value addition in products and services to ensure that humanised technologies reach different sections of society.

NID chairman Ajay K. Dua, who is also the secretary of the department of industrial policy and promotion, said the premier institute has for the first time opened a research and development centre outside Ahmedabad to meet the growing demand for more innovation and new ideas driving this century.

The focus is on innovations and ideas and, hence, design plays a key role as an integrating and synthesising force to add value, the chairman added.