Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Secretary Apurva Chandra on Monday said the Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, and Comics (AVGC) sector could provide an avenue to the skilled manpower and become the backbone of the media and entertainment industry.
In his opening remarks at the breakout session on “Strengthening Industry-Skill Linkage in AVGC”, Mr. Chandra stated that the announcement on AVGC Task Force in the Budget speech by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was a momentous event that recognised the sector’s importance and the role it played in creating employment.
The I&B Secretary noted that the sector had seen tremendous growth over the past seven years and, with proper impetus, could soon become a world leader. The content creation part of gaming required high skills and the government wanted to focus on that through the task force. India could become the content creation factory of the world in the sector, he pointed out.
The breakout session was moderated by Biran Ghose, Country Head, Technicolour India. The session was co-chaired by Mr. Chandra and Atul Tiwari, Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
All possible support
Addressing the participants, Mr. Tiwari said under-recognised for long, the AVGC sector was now not only being recognised but was growing at a fast pace and now the sector was in need of intellectual capital and education. He assured the stakeholders of all possible support required for skilling the sector.
Among the other panelists were Ashish Kulkarni, chief executive officer of Punaryug Private Limited; Munjal Shroff, co-founder of Graphiti Multi Media Private Limited; and Ketan Yadav, COO-VFX Producer, Red Chillies Entertainments Private Limited.
‘Rural India has a role’
Mr. Kulkarni said that by 2030, the sector needed direct employment of at least 20-25 lakh people and that there was need to introduce children to the skills related to the sector at an early age in schools. Rural India provided a fertile ground for talent for this sector. The Centre of Excellence for AVGC should create the right benchmarks keeping in mind the global standards in production and education both, he suggested.
Stating that India’s credentials in the AVGC sector were clearly established today, Mr. Shroff asserted that skilling platforms were required for children to seek out and explore their talent. Upskilling of talent should also happen by way of continuous education, and for that, a knowledge bank needed to be created. He also suggested that top professionals could make themselves available for guiding the students.
Mr. Yadav observed that the foundational training in the sector could also be used for a career in many other sectors. The sector was in need of a practical, dynamic and demand based training to create an industry ready workforce, he added.
