More than 100 delegates from different parts of the world participated in this conference
GURGAON, June 17: Ambassador of Italy, Lorenzo Angeloni and Philips Senior Director and Head of Competence Centre-Lighting Applications, Ms. Sudeshna Mukhopadhyay inaugurated the first-ever Lighting Design conference in the country on Tuesday, 16th June, 2015.
In today’s scenario, the importance of such a niche area like lighting is playing a very important role in retail interiors. In the same line, the conference theme “The Art of Attraction: Lighting Design for Retail Interiors” was organised by the School of Fashion and Design of India’s leading GD Goenka University.
Over 100 delegates and experts participated in the conference that brought together speakers from all over the world to discuss lighting design and technology for the retail and commercial establishments. Among the designated speakers were Ashish Dhir, Founder & Director, Wisedge Consulting; Dr Amardeep M Dugar, Principal, Lighting Research & Design; Kaustubh Nandurbarkar, Owner, Semblance Design Studio; Prof Paulette R Hebert, Dean of Oklahoma State University, USA; Mrinalini Ghadiok, Editor, Mondo Arc; Suresh Sethi, Director Asia, Global Consumer Design, Whirlpool Corporation; Michael Foley, Managing Director, Foley Designs; Preksha Baid, Founder, Y-Walls Design; Lyle Lopez, Owner, Lirio Lopez Lighting; Satish Gokhale, Founder, Design Directions; Dr. Kakoli Sen, Dean, School of Humanities & Social Science, GD Goenka University; Abhishek Khandelwal, Partner, BDCL Lighting+Illumination Technologies; Bharti Chaddha, Assistant Professor, GD Goenka University; Prof. Arturo Dell’ AcquaBellavitis, Dean, School of Design, Politecnico Di Milano; Prof. Renato Lagana, Associate Professor, Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria; Amardeep Behl, Director & Chief Designer, Design Habit; Devender S Kharb, Assistant Professor, GD Goenka University; Sonali Soni Pal, Assistant Professor, GD Goenka University.
Inaugurating the conference, Chief Guest, Italian Ambassador Lorenzo Angeloni said, Italy is the Ambassador of Design in the world and Italian designs spurred competition in the world. He further expressed his happiness over the growing education ties between the GD Goenka’s School of Fashion and Design and Politecnico di Milano, Italy.
Ms Sudeshna Mukhopadhyay, Senior Director and Head of Competence Centre-Lighting Applications, Philips India, said, a revolution is happening in the lighting industry and I am glad that it has started from Gurgaon. A revolution something similar to what has happened to a mobile. You no longer just use it to make calls. Similarly, lighting would become a newer and better form of communication that would lead to better well-being of a human being. She also said, UN Year of Lighting would also help in ending the light poverty in India.
Prof Raj Singh, Vice Chancellor, GD Goenka University, said, new technologies, sustainability and economic development were shifting to rural areas where lighting is more deficient. He also added that, transition to greater LED inclusion is inevitable but retail isn’t like offices or commercial projects. Hence, chip manufacturers have to realize that the market needs a high light output at an energy consumption level below existing technology to generate the sensible ROI demanded.
Prof Sanjay Gupta, Dean of the School of Fashion and Design, GD Goenka University, said, lighting industry in India is 95 billion rupee worth, growing steadily at 12 per cent CAGR and is expected to maintain this growth rate over the next decade. He also said that the growth is being fuelled by rapid development of infrastructure and real state, exponential growth of middle class income and the upsurge of the retail boom across India. At the same time the lighting industry has undergone a huge transformation in terms of technology up gradation, new product innovation, creative lighting design and new areas of application. In addition there has been a strong emphasis on energy conservation and sustainability as lighting alone consumes 18% of the energy generated in India.