About

Prof. Pradyumna Vyas is one of India’s most respected voices in design education and promotion, with more than 35 years of professional and academic experience. He currently serves as Senior Advisor for Design Promotion and Innovation at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and is President-Elect of the World Design Organization (WDO), where he has been actively engaged since 1995 and has served three terms on the Board of Directors.

Prof. Vyas was Director of the National Institute of Design (NID), India’s premier design institution, from 2009 to 2019, following two decades as a faculty member. During his tenure, he strengthened NID’s global standing and championed design for social development and sustainability, engaging with design communities across Japan, Taiwan, China, Africa, and Europe. He holds a Master’s in Industrial Design from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

Appointed the inaugural Member Secretary of the India Design Council in 2009, Prof. Vyas steered the implementation of the National Design Policy and launched the India Design Mark in collaboration with the Japan Institute of Design Promotion (G-Mark). He has also played a key role in WDO’s Global Design Policy Framework project, now in its final stage.

In recognition of his contributions, he has received numerous honours, including an Honourary Master of Arts from the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham (2010), the “Outstanding Contribution to Education” award from the World Education Congress (2015), the “Lifetime Achievement Award” by Times Education Icons (2017), and the title of “Good Design Fellow” by the Japan Institute of Design Promotion (2019). He was also appointed Distinguished Professor at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, China, during the Shanghai Global Design Summit (2019). Vyas currently serves on the boards of global companies such as Kirloskar Brothers, Dynamatic Technologies, and Carysil Limited, and recently completed a tenure with Tata’s Titan Company Limited.

Drawing on his extensive international network, Vyas is committed to advancing WDO’s mission of “design for a better world.” His focus as President-Elect has been on strengthening WDO’s Global Design Policy Framework and initiatives such as Bengaluru’s participation in the World Design Protopolis Programme.