Budget aims to boost India's animation, content creation with ₹250-crore investment
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. India’s animation, visual effects, gaming and comics (AVGC) ecosystem is set for a significant boost after finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a ₹250-crore allocation to expand formal talent development across schools and colleges, signalling a push to institutionalize the country’s fast-growing creator economy.
As part of the Union Budget presented on Sunday, the government will support the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT), Mumbai, in setting up AVGC content creator labs across 15,000 secondary schools and 500 colleges nationwide. The initiative aims to build early, structured exposure to animation, visual storytelling and digital content creation.
Industry experts say culturally rooted formats and structured storytelling are increasingly driving engagement at scale, making early formal training critical to improving content quality and career sustainability. According to a Ficci–EY report, India’s animation, VFX and post-production segment—a subset of the broader media and entertainment industry—was valued at ₹10,300 crore in 2024.
IICT has also signed memorandums of understanding with YouTube, Netflix and US-based Deakin University in recent months. The Budget push also builds on the Economic Survey’s assessment of the “orange economy" as a key growth driver within India’s media and entertainment sector, which industry estimates peg at around ₹2.5 trillion in 2024.
Digital media now accounts for roughly one-third of sector revenues, driving demand for content production, post-production, visual effects (VFX), dubbing and localization integrated into global distribution networks, the survey said. Calling the move timely, Ankush Sachdeva, CEO and co-founder of
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