📋 Tender Overview
Key Takeaways
Indias media and entertainment sector is a sunrise industry, projected to cross USD 100 billion by 2030, powered by digital innovation and creative-tech growth.
The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) is reshaping creative education through global partnerships with Netflix, Google, Microsoft, NVIDIA and others, building a world-class talent ecosystem.
Indian VFX and animation studios now play a key role in global cinema, contributing to blockbusters like Avatar, Thor: The Dark World, and Game of Thrones.
Indias Creative Economy at an Inflection Point
Indias Media and Entertainment sector has emerged as one of the countrys fastest-growing industries, powered by digital innovation, youth-driven demand, and a surge in creative entrepreneurship. Recognised by the government as a high-potential segment within the services economy, the sector is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of about 7 percent, reaching approximately Rs3,067 billion by 2027. The national outlook envisions this ecosystem scaling up to USD 100 billion by 2030, signalling a decisive shift from a content-consuming nation to a global creator and exporter of intellectual property.
The strategic vision for the sector rests on three core pillars:
Current initiatives aim to strengthen domestic capability in animation, visual effects, gaming, and extended reality through investments in training, digital infrastructure, and innovation-driven institutions. At the same time, inclusive participation across regional and linguistic boundaries remains a key policy priority, ensuring that creative opportunities extend beyond metropolitan clusters and into emerging cultural economies.
Economically, the Media and Entertainment sector contributes significantly to value addition and job creation, with its gross value-added share steadily increasing over the last decade. India offers a 40 to 60 percent cost advantage in animation and VFX services, supported by a large skilled workforce. This comparative edge has attracted a steady inflow of international projects and positioned India as a preferred destination for global post-production work. The sectors growing global resonance is equally visible in digital media, where nearly 25 percent of total viewership for Indian OTT content originates from overseas audiences. This reflects not only the commercial appeal of Indias creative output but also its expanding role in cultural diplomacy, as Indian stories continue to build emotional and cultural connections across continents.
The AVGC-XR Revolution
This creative resurgence finds its most dynamic expression in the AVGC-XR sector, where technology, storytelling, and innovation converge to define the next chapter of Indias media and entertainment growth. It is here that Indias creative ambition meets its digital capability marking a shift from producing content for audiences to shaping experiences for the world.
Genesis and Institutional Framework
Indias creative economy has entered a transformative phase with the formal recognition of the Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics and Extended Reality (AVGC-XR) sector as a key driver of growth. The policy journey gained momentum in 2022 with the constitution of the AVGC Promotion Task Force, established to formulate a comprehensive national strategy for nurturing Indias AVGC-XR ecosystem as a global hub for creative technology and digital content production. The Task Force recommended the establishment of a National AVGC-XR Mission with a Create in India focus to position the country as a global hub for digital content creation and creativity. The AVGC Promotion Task Forces report projected the creation of around 20 lakh direct and indirect jobs in the coming ten years, while estimating that the sector could contribute to Indias GDP through production, exports, and allied services.
IICT - From Vision to Action
May 2025: Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) was formalised as a Section 8 company to advance Indias AVGC-XR ecosystem through education, research, and innovation, transforming policy intent into institutional action.
May 2025: IICT onboarded Google, YouTube, Meta, Adobe, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Wacom, and JioStar as industry partners to co-develop curricula, offer internships and scholarships, and support creative-tech startups through incubation and mentoring.
July 15, 2025: Admissions opened for the first academic session featuring specialised courses across Gaming, Post-Production, Animation, Comics, and XR, designed in consultation with industry experts. The institute has also signed an MoU with the University of York (United Kingdom) to facilitate faculty exchange, collaborative research, and globally benchmarked curriculum development.
July 18, 2025: The first IICT campus was inaugurated at the NFDC Complex, Mumbai, with an initial budget of Rs400 crore and a goal of training around 300 students in the inaugural batch alongside professional upskilling modules.
August 30, 2025: The WaveX Media-Tech Startup Incubator was launched to nurture creative entrepreneurship. The first cohort included 15 startups, receiving mentorship, infrastructure, and access to global partners.
October 7, 2025: IICT signed an MoU with FICCI and Netflix to co-create curricula, conduct masterclasses, and provide scholarships under the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity, integrating global content expertise into Indias creative-education ecosystem.
One of the most significant milestones in Indias AVGC-XR journey has been the creation of a dedicated institutional framework to nurture talent and innovation. The National Center of Excellence (NCoE) for AVGC-XR, approved by the Government in 2024, was envisioned as the countrys apex body for training, research, and industry collaboration in animation, visual effects, gaming, and immersive media.
In 2024, the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) was unveiled in Mumbai, Maharashtra, a
