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NEW DELHI: The information and broadcasting ministry on Friday announced setting up a promotion task force for the animation, visual effects, gaming and comics (AVGC) industry. The task force will be headed by secretary in the I&B ministry and will submit it first action plan within 90 days, said a release from the government.
The move to set up the task force comes after the Union minister of finance Nirmala Sitharaman announced a push for the animation, visual effects, gaming and comics (AVGC) sector as part of the annual budget in February.
"The animation, visual effects, gaming, and comics (AVGC) sector offers immense potential to employ youth. An AVGC promotion task force with all stakeholders will be set up to recommend ways to realize this and build domestic capacity for serving our markets and the global demand," the minister had said in her budget speech.
The task force has representation from the industry, academia and state governments. Among secretaries who are part of the task forced are those from the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, department of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, and Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.
Among industry partners, the AVGC task force has named Biren Ghosh, country head, Technicolor India; Ashish Kulkarni, founder, Punaryug Artvision Pvt. Ltd.; Jesh Krishna Murthy, founder and CEO, Anibrain; Keitan Yadav, COO and VFX Producer, Redchillies VFX; Chaitanya Chinchlikar, chief technology officer, Whistling Woods International; Kishore Kichili, senior vice president and country head, Zynga India; and Neeraj Roy, managing director and CEO of Hungama Digital Media Entertainment.
The AVGC promotion task force also includes governments of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Telangana. It has included heads of education bodies such as All India Council of Technical Education, National Council of Educational Research and Training and representatives of industry bodies-MESC, FICCI and CII.
The release from the government said the terms of reference of the task force include framing of a national AVGC policy, recommendation of national curriculum framework for graduation, post-graduation and doctoral courses in AVGC related sectors, facilitating skilling initiatives in collaboration with academic institutions, vocational training centers & Industry, boosting employment opportunities, facilitating promotion and market development activities to extend global reach of Indian AVGC Industry and enhancing exports and recommending incentives to attract FDI in AVGC sector.
A report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) said that in 2021, the Indian VFX and animation market bounced back 30-50% after a difficult year in 2020 and was valued at $0.9 trillion-$1.1 billion. India commands around 10% share of the global VFX and animation market but has the potential to scale up to 20-25% through structural interventions, it said. In 2019-20, the sector managed to create 45,000-60,000 jobs which can be scaled up to 75,000-120,000. The overall gaming market, on the other hand, is estimated at $2 billion-$3 billion.
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