What will it take for an Indian technology startup aspiring to be like APPLE when it comes to product design, to find its own Jonathan Ive?

Ok something very much related but takes into account our history, and the backdrop: 1. Indians historically have not appreciated design especially if it comes at a cost. That explains why apple doesnt sell in India and Samsung does. And when that happens no company puts 5 years in industrial design, aesthetics and hw/sw design because that will increase the cost. is it changing --Yes after many years u see cleartrip and myntra and XUV500 2. Jugaad - we as a country have been very happy about Jugaad. because its a cheap quick fix. But over long term it takes you away from important research-and-design process. Jugaad is bad as it results in bad design as long as something works. What you see above on airtel, Icici is probably in-house jugaad. When I talk to my friend who is a senior highly experience UI designer for one of the best sw companies, he tell me there are not many designers in India because nobody wants to pay them what they deserve, and companies go for jugaad 3. We make "Revenue" the Hero. Bigger company the better. We love guys at Big Bazaar, Reliance and Nirma who have inferior product or service/customer experience but Sell a lot because of cheap. We also love them because of Rags-to-riches coupled with lot of Jugaad and short-term-wins. Over several decades it led to a large population going after cheap and not good. Our parents teach us to be cost conscious and not value conscious 4. But all is not bad. Things are changing in nooks and corners of India. We are seeing new age entrepreneurs and even old generation companies focusing on design and experience. Eg Flipkart, Mahindra giving utmost importance to design, and others

Product companies like Apple become revolutionary when they move ahead and give amazing service to its users. From great user experience to customer support, everything is a part of that service. The industry in US has advanced where reaching out to people is not the constraint anymore. Hence you make your product better by giving great services, user experience and product design being few of those. In India, where reaching out is the challenge and getting people to pay online still remains the holy grail, service takes a back seat. To add to this we have a large population and companies can still manage by ignoring individual experiences as long as there are enough new customers to acquire. How many times we have fretted over Airtel or Vodafone's shitty services and still have to go back to them ? Nevertheless, companies like Cleartrip, flipkart and others have managed to do a brilliant job by creating experiences that are great within this constraints. One great thing to learn from Apple is Steve's selling skills. He created the market for the product he wanted to sell. If it was not for his charismatic personality and confidence and emphasis on design in his keynote speeches, design would not have been the centre of attention in the tech world the way it is today. He literally drilled into the mind of everybody that this is a revolution that is coming. Hence the question that can something revolutionary happen here - Oh yes it can, but if you are already thinking about Apple and Design, then you have already lost the race. We have to figure out what is the next paradigm in technology and also if it has to happen in India it has to have an Indian context to it. Like can technology be directly linked to democracy at the most fundamental level of participation ? And is there anybody strong enough to champion and enforce this idea ? Maybe this time Steve would need Arvind Kejriwal to create the next revolution.

Well, going out for a man-hunt won't help startups find their own 'Jonathan-Ive'. If only they seek, not much help would be brought to the situation. It is as simple as the matter of aspiration; if they aspire to be good in UI and if they strive for it, I am sure that India have a massive pool of good designers which would jump along the way.