Gaming can help India’s share in global M&E sector climb to 4%: Sanjay Jaju, MIB
Addressing the gaming community and stakeholders at an event, Sanjay Jaju, Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, talked about how the ‘sunrise’ sector has the potential to create jobs, fund start-ups and build enterprises.
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The Information and Broadcasting Secretary, Sanjay Jaju has expressed confidence that gaming as a sector has a huge potential to help the media and entertainment sector grow in India.
In his inaugural speech at the India Game Developer Conference (IGDC), Hyderabad, Jaju said that India’s share in the global media entertainment sector is just two percent which has the potential to grow to four percent.
In one of his speeches earlier, Jaju has also mentioned that his aim is to help the sector grow from the present 25 billion market to 100 billion market by 2029.
"… in the global media and entertainment pie, gaming and the entire business of game development is now the fastest growing piece. And it's in this context that from Government of India, we look at this segment as a very important sunrise sector,” he said at IGDC.
Read more: Small part of Prasar Bharati OTT will be subscription-based; rest all free, says MIB's Sanjay Jaju
Jaju was present at the 16th edition of IGDC which is being organised by the Game Developer Association of India (GDAI), and is taking place from November 13-15 at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC). Expected to be the country’s largest event for gaming professionals, IGDC 2024 is bringing together 20,000 attendees, over 250 speakers, and a broad expo featuring top gaming companies, startups, and country pavilions.
The Secretary said, “…it(gaming) is a very important segment when it comes to the global M&E business. Currently, M&E is a huge business opportunity in the world. We only have just 2% of the overall business and we are looking at a significant growth in this because of the huge potential. This industry can grow at about 20% per annum. And by doing that, we will increase our share from 2% to 4% and that's our target.”
According to him video game development or even mobile game development are a very important element of the M&E landscape with a huge economic and employment potential.
Jaju informed the media that his visit and efforts are in line with the government’s ambition to understand the sector’s challenges better and help provide the support it needs.
The MIB Secretary also highlighted setting up of the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) and how it is going to be a very important pillar for not just supporting the skills requirement of the industry, but at the same time, will act as a critical incubator for allowing some of the individual providers to become start-ups and enterprises of the future.
“While the first IICT is being set up in Mumbai in Film City, it will also have multiple regional centers, one of which is going to be in Hyderabad,” he shared.
Further, the Minister also mentioned how the distinction has to be made between gaming and gambling. “The gaming industry needs to be supported. Otherwise, you will have games coming out from the rest of the world populating your own country while we have a rich cultural heritage of storytelling, and capabilities in creating our own games. This is one area where we need to harness and develop capabilities and allow young innovators to not just create games, but at the same time become enterprises that make money and provide employment opportunities to many.”
His speech and interaction with media also highlighted the efforts being made by the government for the sunrise industry for developing qualified game developers and animators at the global level.
“I have had discussions with all the top game developers during a round table today (November 13)…we all consider game development as a very important economic activity.
We already have a huge demographic dividend, a young population that's growing and there is growing interest in gaming— a huge market, so it's important that we create opportunities for this segment to grow. And from Government of India, we are fully committed to provide all such opportunities.”
On private FM radio channels
The MIB Secretary highlighted the government’s intention to encourage setting up more private FM radio channels, especially in the smaller towns and geographies.
“…there are a lot of small towns where we don't have private FM channels. Union cabinet has cleared certain towns where private FM channel is going to be made available in small one lakh population towns.
"We have invited industry partners to participate in the auction that is likely to be conducted next month (Phase III) and will be completed fully by January and February."
Further delving into the significance of the medium, he emphasised that FM radios play a huge role for providing hyper local entertainment—which is essential for people who live in small towns.
“…there will be times when you won't have internet. Then what will you do? You will require an FM radio. And it also helps not just in providing entertainment, but it also helps in education. It also helps in disaster management.” he concluded.
