Taking stock of the acute shortage of human resource in animation industry both in terms of quality and quantity of personnel, Nasscom animation & gaming forum (Nagfo) plans to form an education board with an agenda of standardising curriculum for animation and gaming education across the country.
The education board will have members from the industry, animation studios, producers and scattered training institutions .
Nagfo also plans to extend an invitation to the ministry of information and broadcasting(I & B) to participate in the proposed board, which will decide on prospect and modalities of having a common entrance test , degree and diploma courses and other aspects of animation and gaming education in the country.
?In the past few years the human resource development agenda has been the most challenging for growing the animation & gaming industry.
I believe that the energy and positive mindsets across this Board will encourage more players to join forces and extract the synergies from each other. Also by ensuring improvement in input by testing aptitude and eligibility of students before admitting them to training schools, the output will also improve, ? said Biren Ghose, CEO of Bangalore based production house Kahani World and chairman of the Nagfo. The board plans to ensure government participation and has already briefed up the I & B ministry on it.
?There is no doubt that the education agenda needs an official stamp of approval from such a board and this will benefit students, influence and help with central and state governments and also create a climate for the industry to be perceived as one where banks will give loans to students for such a career,? said Rajesh Turakhia, managing director of Frameboxx, an animation and visual effects company. A recent meeting under the aegis of Nasscom that decided to constitute the board had representation from the studios like BIG Animation, Crest, Prana, Rhythm & Hues, Dhruva Interactive, Jump Gamesamong others, education institutes including Picaaso, Frameboxx, AIGA, Ants, Amrita University, AAG, Maximus, and the combination players like Toonz
Animation & Graphiti who straddle both production and training.
Other representatives included producers like Kahani World, technology firms such as Autodesk & Softimage and community portals such as Animation Xpress and CG Tantra and TASI.
According to a Ficci estimate, the animation industry today stands at Rs 1,300 crore and is expected to grow to Rs 4,300 crore by year 2009, with a CAGR of 35%.
The gaming industry is expected to grow from Rs 36 crore to Rs 1,350 crore by the year 2009, with a CAGR of 78%. The growth rate in these sectors are much higher than overall media & entertainment sector, which is expected to grow at a rate of 19 %.