The Japan Design Award 2026 finally goes to an Indian. This is such a well deserved success for my friend and design guide Qutub Mandviwala.
Qutub has always been passionate about design ever since I have known him (which is over fifty years ago). But somehow, I didn’t ever think of him as the worlds best. And I think that is where, most of us, including myself have gone wrong.
When we started work on a domestic smartphone substituting technology stack, we somehow were comparing with the mid tier brands like Samsung for example. In fact it was Qutub who one day sitting in the verandah of Malabar Hill Club had this conversation, which even he may struggle to remember. The discussion was around design excellence. Everyone was very pleasantly surprised with the work done by Qutub on the redevelopment of Bhendi Bazaar in Mumbai (and will soon do on redevelopment of Dharavi) – but then, I thought “this is such an India specific expertise”. Qutub didn’t like it. And I think rightly so. He felt good design and good design. Doesn’t matter whether it is for a five star hotel or for a millionaires house / office or for a diary or smartphone.
That day I was carrying one of the early prototypes of the Nija phone. It wasn’t where it is today. At that point in 2021, five years ago – it looked like just another phone. Qutub changed our context that day when he literally rubbished the design. He asked me hard questions – and not one of them related to the chipset or the display or technology. He was at functionality and aesthetics – both of which Nija was then lacking in.
The set of questions that he asked triggered a whole new megaset of thinking. We dropped the pursuit of a cheaper phone.
And changed the target to making a better phone. Cost is just one metric. But the emotional connect is a far better metric.
The issue we honed in on, at that breakfast meeting, was that the way to become the most desirable phone in the world was not to add more cosmetic value or better packaging. But to provide a functionality which no one else wanted to.
And that was to make a phone which truly belongs to the subscriber. And to no one else.
When you buy say an iPhone – you own it because you paid for it. Yet you have no ownership. The phone is controlled by Apple. They can deactivate the phone at will. They just need to block your login password. And they can do so at will, without having to give any reason. They can just say it is a technical error.
They have also been caught getting African back offices to analyse feeds from your camera and mic for various kinds of data analysis. And potentially monetisation.
And I think a lot of the credit for Nijas tagline “Truly your own” should rightfully go to Qutub.
Congratulations once more Qutub.
World top three in the main Japanese design award is quite something.
Wishing you many more successes to come.
