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The content of this course is from the following report:
V. Kant, ‘Integrating Human-centred Design in the Indian Defence Sector’,Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Report, 23rd India Design Summit, 14 December 2023, available at 
https://ciidesign.in/pdf/VK_CII_Policy_paper_26_Feb_2024.pdf.
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With the emphasis of “Atmanirbhar Bharat” and “Make in India”, the defence sector has seen growth of various private industries as well as a change in the outlook of the various Defence Public Sector Units, Defence forces and the government. This enormous emphasis has resulted in the growth of technology and technological offerings in the country. While there is an extensive potential for the technological revolution underway, there is also the necessity to recognize the human contribution to technology. Specifically, the aim of this policy document is to address human-centered design as a contributor to the defence sector in India. In short, this policy brief proposes that along with “Make in India” and “Atmanirbhar Bharat”, there is also the need for “Integrating Human Centred Design for Indian Defence”.

This elaboration of the Human Centred Design (HCD) is important because the usage of technology is by defence personnel. The single-minded pursuit of technological design leads to unusable technology to which the end-user (e.g. soldier) has to adjust. This adjustment, ultimately, results in long-term adaption of the users to poorly designed human-centric equipment (often, defence equipment has an operational life of 10-15 years), affecting the combat capability of the forces. In the future, operational readiness will have to be supported not only by the perspective of technological readiness but also from the viewpoint that technology should be human-ready and usable to leverage and support combat experience. Along with combat experience, a human centred viewpoint should also support defence personnel in various roles (such as maintainers, testers, amongst many others), in the entire lifecycle of the various technological systems. In short, there is a need to support human experience in systems design that will contribute towards improved combat experience, national productivity, international competitiveness, and other collaborative engagements between various stakeholders ranging from defence integrators to startups. Therefore, this policy report is written with a sectoral viewpoint that encompasses the aspirations of the country, business interests, end-user goals, and values of the military.

In addition to the above, several related challenges abound in the defence sector, which limits the entry of HCD. These include a lack of awareness about HCD offerings and capabilities for providing value to various stakeholders. Oftentimes, the HCD output is either labeled as “aesthetics” or devalued as “obvious”, with the primary emphasis provided to technological design. This aspect also results in a lack of understanding and use of metrics that support usable HCD-based output in the form of products, services, and systems. This issue, concomitantly, results in a lack of human integration in the system lifecycle. At the same time, HCD-oriented education has often developed as separated from engineering design in the country, resulting in a lack of a common ground where HCD can easily be integrated by various manufacturers and technologists. Therefore, there is a need for an institutional basis that supports HCD in its various manifestations in the defence sector. Thus, this policy brief takes a sectoral approach to HCD engagement in Indian defence. This will ensure that all aspects of design are seriously considered by a broad breadth of engagement not only with organizations and institutions but also with how the internal processes and practices in these can be engaged. The report also avoids focusing on one single individual, team, or organization and moves beyond it in order to engage with a broader evaluation of how the various stakeholders can be meaningfully engaged with a human-centric approach.

The rest of this policy document develops the need for an HCD approach in the defence sector in India. Towards this end, it describes HCD and its necessity for the Indian defence sector (Section 2). In Section 3, the challenges and barriers to incorporating human- centered design are discussed in detail. Section 4 develops steps in the form of recommendations that can be used to create a more vital human-centered design ecosystem. The policy brief concludes with future opportunities (Section 5) for HCD in the Indian defence sector.


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