Ten years ago, the thought of instituting an award in this category for vehicles designed in India would have been inconceivable. But over the last decade, the the Indian automotive sector has gone through changes that are nothing short of dramatic. Till the mid-1990s, almost all automobiles being mass produced in India had been conceived abroad and, consequently, were not designed with the needs of Indians in mind.

So the cars were Ambassadors designed in the UK by Morris in the 1950s, Premiers designed in Italy by Fiat in the late 1960s, and Marutis designed in Japan by Suzuki in the mid-1980s. Among two-wheelers were the Bajaj scooters originally designed by Piaggio in post-World War II Italy, the Enfield motorcycles (authentic iron from 1950s England), and the Jawas and Yezdis of Czech origin.

Marutis were reliable but mostly too small to accommodate the Indian family. Ambassadors could carry the family, cat and dog included, but were wanting on the reliability front. It was this that led Tata group chairman Ratan Tata to think of building "a car that will provide the space of an Ambassador at the price of a Maruti (800)". Thus, in 1996, was born the idea of the Indica. Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (Telco), a Tata group company and India's biggest manufacturer of commercial vehicles, was given the task of building the car, then referred to as Mint. There was just one glitch: Telco knew nothing of building passenger cars.

On the two-wheeler front, the 1980s saw quite a bit of action. All the big Japanese motorcycle companies - Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Yamaha - set up joint ventures with Indian companies and were producing 100 cc econobikes of Japanese design. These pushed out the earlier-generation workhorses, the Rajdoots and the Yezdis. But, in course of time, some of the collaborations hit the bumps and the Japanese partners decided to get off. That left a few Indian companies with production capacity but no product in the pipeline and Kinetic Motor Company, which had been producing scooters in collaboration with Honda, was one of them. The Kinetic Nova was designed to solve that problem for the company.

So the two winners of the Businessworld-NID Design Excellence Awards 2003 in the automobile design category were born out of completely different needs but prove one simple point: design is not something that is beyond Indians. The jury judged the contenders on aesthetic appeal, ergonomics, technical performance, market response and environmental friendliness.

The Indica was adjudged the winner in the four-wheeler segment for a number of reasons. For one, it looks smart. According to the jury, the styling is contemporary and compares very well with the competitors. Ratan Tata may have not got exactly what he wanted - the Indica costs a touch more than the Maruti 800 and has a bit less interior space than the Ambassador - but it manages to get sufficiently close to its objective. The body shell is modular and can be built as a hatchback, sedan or estate. The design of the engine block allows it to be adapted to three types of fuel: diesel, petrol and compressed natural gas. Today, it is the second largest-selling car in its segment in India. As for international acceptance, it has tied up recently with Rover of the UK to export cars to that country to be sold under the Rover marque. Says Ravi Hazra: "The Indica signifies the capabilities and commitment of the nation."

The Kinetic Nova, says Tapani Hyvonen, is an international class product. Its styling incorporates all mechanical parts within the simple lines. The scooter would be simple and easy to operate for women and older people alike. The automatic start, the light weight of the scooter, space for storage, ergonomics and comfortable seating for two were some of the features that the jury appreciated. It is also exported to a number of international markets.

Says Kinetic Motor Company joint managing director Sullaja Firodia Motwani: "We believe that a good product design can, in fact, help a company create new product categories in the market. A good product design is fundamental to sound automobile engineering and can further product development."

The brief for Ravindra S. Patil, who headed the Nova design team, was to make a four-stroke gearless scooter with a target price of Rs 35,000. A five member senior team of designers with 25 members from the styling studio worked on the project to reduce the production cycle to 14 months.

Today the Kinetic Nova sells in India as well as in the US, Europe, Latin America and Australia. Incidentally, it was way back in the 1970s that Kinetic had launched the Luna moped, India's first gearless two-wheeler.

In case of both the products, design elements have also allowed the company to reduce cost of tooling and manufacturing significantly.

The jury specifically appreciated the depth with which the market was being covered by the two winners and their attempt to go beyond just a basic product and offer terrific value for money.