The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) on Friday announced the promised Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) promotion task force under the chairmanship of the Secretary of the ministry and comprising representation from various stakeholders.

The AVGC Promotion Task Force shall be headed by the MIB Secretary and will have Secretaries of other government agencies like the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship; Department of Higher Education,  Ministry of Education; Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade.

The creation of an AVGC promotion task force will provide focused thrust for the growth of the sector by driving the institutional efforts to guide the policies of growth for this sector, establish standards for AVGC education in India, actively collaborate with industry and international AVGC institutes, and enhance the global positioning of the Indian AVGC industry, the government said in a statement Friday.

The terms of reference of the task force include the following:

(i)  Framing of a national AVGC policy.

(ii) Recommend national curriculum framework for graduation, PG and doctoral courses in AVGC related sectors.

(iii) Facilitate skilling initiatives in collaboration with academic institutions, vocational training centers & Industry.

(iv) Boost employment opportunities.

(v) Facilitate promotion and market development activities to extend global reach of Indian AVGC Industry.

(vi) Enhance exports and recommend incentives to attract FDI in the AVGC sector.

The AVGC task force will submit its first action plan within 90 days, the statement said.

The task force will also include Biren Ghosh, Country Head, Technicolor India; Ashish Kulkarni, Founder, Punaryug Artvision Pvt. Ltd.; Jesh Krishna Murthy, Founder and CEO Anibrain; Keitan Yadav, COO and VFX Producer, Redchillies VFX; Chaitanya Chinchlikar, Chief Technology Officer, Whistling Woods International; Kishore Kichili, Sr. Vice President and Country Head, Zynga India and Neeraj Roy, Managing Director and CEO of Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, apart from representatives of State Governments of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana; heads of education bodies such as All India Council of Technical Education, National Council of Educational Research and Training  and industry bodies such as MESC, FICCI and CII.

The AVGC sector in India has the potential to become the torch bearer of “Create in India” and “Brand India” and can capture 5 percent ($40 billion) of the global market share by the year 2025, with an annual growth of around 25-30 percent and creating over 1,60,000 new jobs annually.

To further unleash the scope of AVGC sector, an announcement was made in the Union Budget 2022-23 for setting up an AVGC Promotion Task Force to recommend ways to realise and build domestic capacity for serving our markets and the global demand.