Cabinet nod for new centre of excellence for animation, visual effects, gaming

NEW DELHI: The Union cabinet on Wednesday approved the establishment of a National Centre of Excellence (NCoE) for Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics and Extended Reality (AVGC-XR) in Mumbai as a not-for-profit company.
Tentatively called the Indian Institute for Immersive Creators (IIIC), the centre will follow a hub and spoke model with the IIIC as the hub and other centres as its spokes, information and broadcasting minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said while announcing the cabinet decisions.
“The aim is to channelise the new developments in economy to create new opportunities,” Vaishnaw said as he talked about the growing creator economy in the country. Industry bodies Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) will be the central government’s partners for this institute.
The proposed national centre will anchor the AVGC-XR ecosystem in the country and offer specialised training and learning programmes to both amateurs and professionals. The aim is to develop Indian intellectual property that leverages Indian historical and cultural heritage for both domestic and global consumption.
“Creator economy, today, is becoming a huge and powerful economy. We are looking at how to use infrastructure, proper skilling, and new technologies to give the youth new opportunities for employment and thus we will set up a new institute where such training will be given,” Vaishnaw said.
He added that a lot of technology used in movies such as The Lion King, Top Gun Maverick and RRR was used in global capability centres in Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. “There is potential to create employment for 500,000 people in this sector,” he said.
Since IIIC will be a government institution, the cost of attending will be controlled, Vaishnaw said.
The formal name might be announced during the WAVES Summit in February. World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit (WAVES) is the information and broadcasting ministry’s marquee summit for the media and entertainment sector.
WAVES was initially supposed to be held in Goa from November 20 to 25 but has been postponed to February 2025 in Delhi.
On August 22, Vaishnaw launched 25 industry-led challenges in animation, filmmaking, gaming, music and visual arts in the run up to WAVES. At that time, he said that the government wanted to foster and encourage talent in media and entertainment and planned to set up at least one major university to train creators in media and entertainment with smaller institutes across the country.