Budget 2022: Government to set up promotion taskforce for AVGC sector

The announcement has been made in order to build domestic capacity for serving the growing demand in the sector

The Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comic (AVGC) sector will set up a promotion task force with all stakeholders to recommend ways to employ youth and build domestic capacity for serving Indian markets and the global demand, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in the budget 2022 speech on Tuesday. As per the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), India has less than 10% of the global market share in VFX and animation. 

It has been some time since the government has been eyeing the growth rate of this sector. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) in 2020 announced that it will establish AVGC Centre of Excellence (CoE) on the back of the belief that gamification and animation will become a major export for the country and a wealth generator. Following this promise, the first AVGC CoE was launched in Bengaluru last month. This year, MIB has been allocated a total of Rs 3, 980.77 crore by the government

To give perspective, the Indian gaming industry is generating $1.5 billion in revenue and is expected to triple this to over $5 billion by 2025, according to BCG-Sequoia India report 2021. Meanwhile, the Indian media and entertainment sector is expected to grow at a nine to eleven percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to reach $55-70 billion by 2030. The growth is estimated to be driven by over-the-top (OTT) platforms, gaming, animation, and VFX. 

Let’s see how the industry stakeholders are reacting to this announcement by the Finance Minister.