AVGC industry has been growing at an exponential rate. Focusing on the growth, the government of India announced the plans to develop an AVGC (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics) Centre of Excellence (CoE) at IIT Bombay, at CII SummitFX 2020.
Union Minister of information and broadcasting and environment; forest and climate change and heavy industries and public enterprises Prakash Javadekar expressed at the Inaugural session of SummitFX 2020 that AVGC is not only a sunrise industry but a promising one with an opportunity to develop and become a leader in this field stated union. He expects Gamification and animation will become a major export for the country and a wealth generator.
“We have formed an expert committee, through the MIB and IIT Bombay, the committee has submitted its report to create a gamification centre. This is a landmark decision that will act as a forum for our entrepreneurs and help them to move ahead within the industry.” He further stressed that this sector has the potential to change the way our children learn, and therefore the four days of conference by CII, will give ministry the idea to work together in this avenue along private sector.
MIB secretary Amit Khare, lauded the efforts of CII in the M&E sector especially the AVGC sector. Within the M&E sector, the AVGC sector is growing by 29 per cent through private initiatives. He expressed that government is working on developing an AVGC CoE. The underlying policy of the government is to act as a facilitator where it requires interventions, and not regulation.
Added he, “There is a consensus building that the Center and State Governments need to come together stated to promote Centers of Excellence for AVGC industry. We need to work with the State Governments further, and it is in this line we are working and finalizing the AVGC policy for the Government of India. Govt. is also working on Audio-Visual Champion Sector scheme and provide incentives for people from all over the world to shoot in India for pre-production and post-production, this will include AVGC as well.”
Recognising the growing need of trained manpower for AVGC industry, government is considering to establish recognition mechanisms of prior learning courses while setting up the CoE in partnership with industry and IIT Bombay. One of the biggest advantages of this sector revolves around the lack of need of physical locations. This will also help build overall digital infrastructure.
Khare also highlighted that the entire M&E industry, but for a few interventions from the Government, is totally a private-led initiative. “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.