Note4Students
From UPSC perspective, the following things are important :
Prelims level: NA
Mains level: AVGC-ER
The Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) Promotion Task Force report has proposed a national AVGC-Extended Reality Mission with a budget outlay to be created for integrated promotion and growth of the sector.
What is AVGC?
- While the etymology of the word surrounds everything to do with Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics, the overarching term is an umbrella for all the sub-sectors that are contributing to India’s digital economy.
- This includes-
- Animation Studios
- VFX Studios
- Game Development Studios
- Platforms
- Hardware Manufacturers
- Software developers
- Virtual Production Studios and many more entities
- The sector saw immense growth with technological adoption as is, but it witnessed steep uptake with the onset of the pandemic.
Why focus on the AVGC sector?
- Emerging sector: The global AVGC industry amounts to $800 billion, and the Indian AVGC sector is brimming with the potential to bag up to 5 percent of the global share ($40 billion).
- India’s IT prowess: India today contributes about $2.5-3 billion of the estimated $260-275 billion worldwide AVGC market.
- Skilled workforce availability: According to industry experts, the Indian market which currently employs about 1.85 lakh AVGC professionals, can witness a growth of 14-16% in the next decade.
- Employment generation: Not only does the sector contribute significantly to the economy, it also creates an abundance of employment opportunities for several skilled sectors, with over 160,000 jobs that it could provide yearly.
Key recommendations by the task force
The report has also recommended-
- “Create in India” campaign with an exclusive focus on content creation
- Establishment of AVGC accelerators and innovation hubs in academic institutions
- Democratizing AVGC technologies by promoting subscription-based pricing models for MSME, Start-ups and institutions;
- Indigenous technology development through incentive schemes and Intellectual Property creation; and
- Setting up a dedicated production fund for domestic content creation from across India to promote the country’s culture and heritage globally.
- Memorandum of Cooperation with developed global AVGC markets — U.S., Japan, South Korea, Germany etc.
Way forward
- Policy vision: Because of the wide range of sub-sectors that are amass under AVGC’s wide umbrella, there is a need for a broad vision to help further incubate this industry.
- Up-skilling: There is a requirement for not only financing and resource allocation for the sector, but also education and talent development.
- Collaboration: Gaming, VFX, and animation markets in the likes of the US or South Korea, for instance, has been heavily incubated, and are thus at the crest of the wave on a global scale today.
Conclusion
- If it gets the correct atmosphere to grow in–especially one that covers all the bases under it, the Indian AVGC sector has the capacity to become the zenith of Digital India and the hallmark of the ‘Brand India’ dream that PM envisages.
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