By annually downloading 4.8 billion games, Indians have made this world’s largest market for mobile gaming, according to the Data.ai report.
As the world’s second largest consumer of entertainment, India gobbled Rs 83 billion worth of animation and visual effects products in 2021, admittedly a lean year due to Covid, shows the Statista report.
Being among the world’s biggest consumers in any sphere is good – as a record. But it doesn’t put money in the national pocket. That comes when a nation of big consumers morphs itself into a nation of big creators.
And that presumably was the reasoning behind the commitment in the Union Budget of 2022 to the creation of a national task force for “Promotion of the Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comic (AVGC) sector, with the target to capture 5 per cent (equal to $40 billion) of the global market by 2025, and in the process generating 1.6 lakh jobs every year.
Words turned to deeds by April this year when the task force was formed. While headed by a bureaucrat – the Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting -- the body wisely drew on expertise in the private sector and roped in the leadership of seven of the best known animation and VFX players in the country.
The task force also included members from the state governments of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Telangana – unexceptionable, since these three states had a head start in growing an animation and visual effects ecosystem.
But if that was the reasoning, the absence of Kerala in this group appears strange, considering that it has been a pioneer, outstripping every other state in the country, in creating a mechanism for growing film, video and animation technologies way back in 2007.
At any rate the task force brought the smack of firm purpose to its proceedings – and on Monday (26 December), it delivered its first report outlining a plan of action that included four parallel streams of action:
Developing the domestic industry to make India a global hub for the AVGC industry. This includes the setting up of a National Centre of Excellence (CoE) for skilling, education, research and innovation.
Developing the talent ecosystem by introducing AVGC course content in schools, undergraduate and postgraduate education, standardising admission tests for dedicated courses, creating innovation hubs on the lines of the highly successful Atal Tinkering Labs… all with the aim of creating 20 lakh skilled professionals.
Enhancing technical and financial viability for an indigenous AVGC industry, through tax benefits, import barriers and incentives for Intellectual Property (IP) creation.
Harness AVGC to promote Indian culture and heritage globally; offer special incentives for women entrepreneurs and promote local children’s channels.
Between the creation of the task force and the submission of its proposals, the ambit of its policy appears to have expanded as its updated acronym suggests: AVGC-XR for Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics – Extended Reality.
The report states that the Indian Media and Entertainment sector is expected to grow at 8.8 per cent CAGR to reach $53.75 billion in 2026.
India’s AVGC sector had an overall market size of $2.3 billion in 2019, which was just 0.7 per cent of the global market size.
The sector is expected to grow 2.2 times over the next four years driven by market forces to 1.5 per cent of the global AVGC market which was estimated at $372.44 billion in 2021 and is predicted to reach over $587.1 billion by 2030.
Television and Over the Top (OTT) pay by use content largely dominate the use of animation and VFX, followed by films. But gaming is expected to be the fastest growing segment of animation and VFX services with a CAGR of 12 per cent.
The report notes the increasing number of animated series and features being produced in India which have attracted global audiences.
The availability of low-cost internet access, and growing popularity of OTT platforms is expected to give a fillip to domestic consumption “VFX and Animation can be the next IT-BPM boom for India and has the potential to play a fundamental role in India becoming a USD 100 billion M&E industry by 2030”, says the report.
Read More at https://swarajyamag.com/business/now-its-official-india-sets-sight-on-5-per-cent-of-global-animation-visual-effects-gaming-business
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