Karnavati University’s Ahmedabad Design Week (ADW) 3.0 To Kick Start On February 26

* Third edition of ADW To Be Held on Theme of Design and Innovation In Defence and AeroSpace; Thought Leaders, Startups, Investors from Defence Design Fraternity to participate

The third edition of the prestigious Ahmedabad Design Week (ADW) 3.0 – a melting pot of ideas and insights – organised by Karnavati University, based in Uvarsad, Gandhinagar, is all set to Kickstart from February 26 at the varsity’s sprawling campus. The Ahmedabad Design Week will be held on 26th, 27th and 28th February, 2022. Karnavati University is a state private university dedicated to excellence in teaching and is focused on interdisciplinary learning.

Started as India Design Confluence (IDC) in 2018 and later re-branded, ADW is a confluence of designers, thinkers, academicians, researchers, industry captains and entrepreneurs from across the globe. ADW, a design research & dialogue initiative by Karnavati University is largely an academic event. Even during the pandemic, the thought-provoking, poignant dialogues on design continued, but in the digital format

This year’s theme for ADW 3.0 is Design and Innovation in Defence and Aerospace – a topic of strategic importance. The event will be inaugurated by the Honourable General MM Naravane, Chief of Army Staff, Indian Army; along with Shri Hari Babu Srivastava, Outstanding Scientist and Director General – Technology Management (TM), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), on February 26.

Explaining the rationale behind this year’s theme, Shri Ritesh Hada, President, Karnavati University, said, “ADW 3.0’s themed on Design and Innovation in Defence and Aerospace, is very much in line with Government of India’s mission of achieving Atmanirbharta in defence manufacturing in India.”

“ADW will create a platform for starting a dialogue on the role of design in defence and aerospace, use of emerging technologies and bring together design practitioners, defence sector veterans and innovators to deliberate upon this. This will also be an opportunity to encourage innovators to explore defence sector,” Mr Hada further explained.

ADW is a confluence of design thinkers, thought leaders and practitioners from across the globe and the sole theme of the event is to facilitate discussion, deliberation and identification of scope and the application of design in various domains, fields, and industries.

The previous editions of ADW involved a series of thought-provoking discussions, deliberations, speaker sessions and workshops around the theme of World Design 2025; Design in India and Toying with Design.

Stalwarts from the design fraternity including Dr R Shivaraman, co-founder, Big Bang Boom Solutions; Prahlad Kakkar, Founder, Genesis Film Production, among others; Shiladitya Bora, Filmmaker and Founder of Platoon One Films; Manish Bhatt, Director – Scarecrow M&C Saatchi; Kedar Nimkar, Vice President – Design, Jupiter; Kshitiz Anand, Associate Vice President – Design, Paytm; Maxima Basu, Fashion Designer, Actress and Director, Assistant Director of Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionnaire; among others, will be present at ADW 3.0 for a host of speaker sessions, workshops and discussions.

Some of the guest speakers who would address the speaker sessions of the event include a series of defence sector experts namely Lieutenant General KJS Dhillon, Former Director General, Defence Intelligence Agency; Dr Sudhir Mishra, Former Director General, CEO and MD, BrahMos Aerospace; Dr G Satheesh Reddy, Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman, DRDO; Major General M Indrabalan, Additional Director General NCC, Bihar and Jharkhand NCC, among others.