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Ministry of Information and Broadcasting | Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) | NITI Aayog
India’s creative economy—often referred to as the Orange Economy—is emerging as a strategic pillar for growth, employment, and global visibility. Value in this sector is generated primarily from intellectual property and technology, with the media and entertainment sector valued at approximately ₹2.5 trillion in 2024 and supporting over 10 million livelihoods. High-growth segments like Gaming (₹232 billion) are leading the transformation into a technology-intensive industry. A central element of this roadmap is the Create in India Challenge, which identifies emerging talent and links them directly to global platforms to ensure local ideas can compete and commercialize internationally. To sustain this momentum, the government has established the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) and is setting up AVGC Content Creator Labs in 15,000 secondary schools to prepare a generation for the projected demand of 20 lakh jobs by 2030.
Key Pillars of the India Creative Economy Roadmap
The AVGC-XR Frontier: Leveraging Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics, and Extended Reality as the most tech-driven frontier for original IP and global digital production.
Gaming as Infrastructure: Transitioning gaming from a pass-time to a scalable digital industry, with India now ranking among the world’s largest markets with ₹232 billion in revenue.
Live Entertainment & Spillovers: Building a professional ecosystem around stadium-scale concerts and festivals, which energize urban tourism and local hospitality workers.
Orange Economy Platforms (WAVES): Operationalizing the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES) and the WAVES Bazaar to facilitate global deal-making and co-production rights.
Institutional Foundations: Anchoring the sector in the IICT, which provides advanced infrastructure and startup incubation for creators to enter global workflows.
What is the “Orange Economy”? The Orange Economy is a developmental model that treats culture and creativity as primary sources of economic value and jobs. It encompasses all industries whose goods and services are based on intellectual property—such as film, music, gaming, design, and digital content platforms. For India, the Orange Economy is a strategic capability that turns its vast cultural heritage and diverse talent into tradeable global narratives. By organizing imagination into structured industries, the government aims to move from providing creative “services” for foreign firms to owning the “narratives and IP” that move global markets.
Policy Relevance
The shift represents a transition from “Cultural Consumption” to “Creative Sovereignty,” where India’s stories and digital IPs become primary drivers of its $300 billion e-commerce export goal.
Strategic Impact:
Scaling High-Productivity Jobs: The projection of 20 lakh jobs in AVGC-XR helps address the 12.4% global youth unemployment trend by offering high-skilled careers that are less vulnerable to basic AI automation.
Enhancing “Viksit Bharat” Soft Power: By establishing IICT and Creator Labs in 15,000 schools, India is building a “Narrative Infrastructure” that strengthens its global influence, much like its 42.36 lakh km fiber network strengthens its digital connectivity.
Integrating with “AI for All”: The use of real-time rendering and XR in creative production aligns with the India AI Governance Guidelines, ensuring that Indian creators are the first to adopt safe, “Understandable by Design” generative tools.
Revitalizing Tier-2/3 Cities: Emerging creative clusters in cities beyond Bengaluru and Mumbai provide a critical “formalization” opportunity for the 85% informal workforce through digital content creation.
Driving Urban Tourism: The ₹142 billion projected for live events by 2026 creates sustained demand for urban services, directly benefiting the street vendors supported under PM SVANidhi.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: In what ways can the ‘Create in India Challenge’ be used to discover rural storytellers in Gram Panchayats and link them to the ‘AVGC Content Creator Labs’ in 500 colleges?
Follow the full news here: PIB: Creative Industries as Growth Engines