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Design teaches you that confusion is a good thing; it means you're thinking, says Balasubramaniam. He fell in love with the field as a teenager. Through his career, he has designed torches, tractors and more. He has now won a global award for driving better product design, and pushing for a national design ministry. A designer must challenge the status quo, he says, smiling. 'He must ask: How else can this be done? How can it be done better?'

- Sukanya Datta

Design is everywhere, says A Balasubramaniam, 64. In the sheen of a flashlight’s reflective rim. In the distance between two steps in a staircase. In the way a newspaper folds so readily to fit into the hand.

“And yet there are no fixed rules,” Balasubramaniam says, smiling. “One doesn’t have to work with pre-established choices. In fact, design, especially product design, compels one to reimagine the status quo.”

Over five decades, Balasubramaniam, founding director of the Institute of Design at JK Lakshmipat University (JKLU) in Jaipur, has helped shape hundreds of products: torches, trucks, hospital trolleys, pedestal fans for outdoor venues, headphones, refrigerators, table lamps.

He has worked with companies such as Hero, Eveready, Usha, Singer and Eicher, as well as with state crafts councils, handicraft enterprises and the NGO Oxfam. A graduate of the National Institute of Design (NID), he has also taught at NID and the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT).

Earlier this month, Balasubramaniam became the first Indian to win the Hills Millennium Award. Presented annually by the UK-based Institute of Engineering Designers, past winners have included a car designer for Ford, Ferrari and McLaren, and the creative director of Ikea Retail.

Balasubramaniam has won for his tireless campaign to get India to focus more on how form influences function.

He has been pushing for a Ministry of Design, which he believes would help superlative but languishing sectors such as the handicrafts industries fare better in the 21st century.

He has been arguing for greater emphasis on design in a changing world of increasingly scarce resources. Simple questions like “Can this cistern save more water” can have a deep impact, he says.