The Government of India plans to develop an AVGC (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comic sector) Centre for Excellence along with the Industrial Design Centre of IIT Bombay. “The Centre will provide a place where different technologies, developments in the field of animation, gaming will be brought to one place. It will also train the thought leaders in the field of AVGC,” Amit Khare, secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said. He was speaking at the CII Summit FX 2020. The centre is likely to come off the ground in the next one-two years.
According to Khare, the M&E sector has a huge growth potential and is already currently growing at nine percent. Reports suggest that the industry is expected to expand at a CAGR of 13.5% over 2019-24 to reach around Rs 3,07,000 crore ($ 43.93 billion) by 2024. Infact, within the M&E sector, the AVGC sector is growing even faster at around 29% while audio visual sector and services is one of the champion sectors identified by the Government of India growing almost at the rate of 25%. “With this growth, it is also a major area for job creation where people innovate and create their own jobs and are placed in the category of self employment. It is a great breakthrough where people become innovators,” Khare added.
Khare also highlighted that the entire M&E industry, but for a few interventions from the Government, is totally a private-led initiative. And even while the Government is closely coordinating on developing the AVGC Centre for Excellence, the underlying policy of the Government is to act as a facilitator where it requires any intervention, not as a regulator. “These are the areas where innovation and creativity is the key and therefore, only the intervention and not interference from Government is required,” he stated adding that there is a huge market for gaming globally and if the country can go by having ‘Make in India’ for the world, that is, it develops Indian stories for audiences across the globe, the sector will see a great success.
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