We welcome the budget's focus on promoting startups and giving impetus to the Digital Economy. “Having said that, we look forward to 2022 to cater to the need for regulations through holistic policy guidelines for its long-term growth and sustainability to compete on a global scale," said he. Moreover, it will also help develop a workforce of young and employable AVGC professionals to usher in the next tech revolution from within India.”
AnwarShirpurwala, CEO, Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports – India’s onlyself-regulatory body for fantasy sports said: "As a fast-growing industry,fantasy sports has created an economic impact driven by its size and scale.Over the next few years, the fantasy sports industry is capable of cumulatively contributing Rs 11,000 crore in taxes including GST and TDS to the government exchequer, attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) worth over Rs 10,000 crore and creating 12,000 additional jobs by generating employment opportunities for individuals skilled in fields like graphic design, motionDesign, creative writing, storytelling, user experience researchers, data analysts, software programmers so on and so forth.”
Shirpurwala said that the budget announcement aligns with the growth of this emerging industry. Sai Srinivas, Co-Founderand CEO, Mobile Premier League (MPL) on the budget said: “It is very encouraging to see that the Union Budget has taken into consideration some of the long-pending suggestions for the Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, and Comics (AVGC)sector, while noting the strong potential this industry holds for employment-generation as well as taking ‘Made in India’ game titles global.”
He further added: “We welcome the Hon’ble Finance Minister's announcement to set up an AVGC Promotion Task Force to provide a much-needed boost to thesector. This announcement highlights the need to build capacity to serve both domestic and global markets, and is a strong indicator of the impetus that the government is willing to provide for its growth. The taskforce for promoting the AVGC sector will provide the much-needed clarity and certainty for the Fantasy Sports and Esports sectors by providing more upskilling and career opportunities for the youth to be a part of India's Sunshine sectors” said Harsh Jain, CEO and co-founder of Dream11 and Dream Sports.
The pandemic and Covid-19 forced restrictions have made several users change their entertainment habits, which has meant a higher user uptick in gaming—both casual gaming and skill based gaming.
For instance, at the recently concluded IAMAI Digital Summit Jain of Dream11 said that fantasy sports companies invested Rs 3,000 crore in media rights, sponsoring teams, leagues, players among others.
According to the “India Gaming Report 2021” by consulting firm RedSeer and Lumikai, the first India-based gaming and interactive media venture fund, the country’s gaming market is set to become $7billion in FY2026, more than three times of its value in FY2021.
This is a space that’s growing rapidly but there’s a void for good programmers, graphic designers or esports managers because there are no formal gaming courses. Local publishers and creators can certainly do with the support, be it in form of incentives or grants or even adapting comics and graphic novels to school & college courses,” said Jatin Varma, founder of the decade-old Comic Con India, a series of annual comic-based conventions.
According to a report published by Boston Consulting Group and Sequoia last November, more than 300 million people currently play mobile games in India “catalysed by better smartphones, increased internet access, popular titles, influencers, and Covid.”. Otherwise our best talents are getting recruited by big studios in the west,” said Rushindra Sinha, founder and CEO of Global Esports and Gamers Guild.
“Video games, unlike software, are at the intersection of disciplines — art, design, tech, and commerce, and should be treated differently,” said Roby John, CEO and co-founder of Pune-based gaming company SuperGaming who called the move “a stamp of legitimacy for the games industry.”
“If done right it could be a game changer for the fledgling comic book industry in India. There’s real potential for India to be a global hub for AVGC but for that the execution will need to keep pace with the speed of the industry.
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