From Bharat to the world: Turning India’s gaming law into a creative-tech playbook
The first decade of Digital India was about pipes and platforms. The next must be about products and IP.
- Sep 19, 2025,
- Updated Sep 19, 2025 12:14 PM IST
India’s first digital sprint gave us affordable data and mass access. The next will be defined by what we build on top of that access, our own IP, immersive worlds, and AI-powered storytelling that can travel across languages and borders. With India set to cross 900 million internet users in 2025, the question is no longer who is online, but what do we build for them, and for the world?
A few weeks ago, India took an important step towards answering that question. The enactment of the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act is a watershed moment because it gives long-awaited legal clarity. For the first time, esports is explicitly recognised as an area of priority to be promoted. That clarity reduces brand and regulatory risk, builds investor confidence, and creates pathways for players, coaches and organisers. Coupled with recognition as a multi-sport event under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, its debut at the Khelo India Youth Games, and cash incentives for medal winners, competitive video gaming now sits firmly within India’s sporting and cultural ecosystem. In effect, it puts esports in the same frame as cricket and cinema, pillars of India’s cultural exports. And it signals something larger: that India is ready to back its creative-tech ecosystem with the legitimacy, rules, and guardrails needed to compete globally.
The scale is already visible. Media and entertainment touched about ₹2.5 trillion in 2024, with digital overtaking television as the largest segment. That shift shows how Indians are discovering and paying for content, and how Indian creators can reach global audiences without a passport. Video gaming is perhaps the clearest case of culture meeting code. India has 511 million video gamers today and gaming has grown rapidly with a strong path ahead. This growth is being driven by expanding paying cohorts and smarter monetisation through in-app purchases and ads. It proves a principle that when we design for India’s realities, mobile-first, vernacular, value pricing—scale follows.
Institutions are emerging too. Earlier this year, the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) opened its first campus in Mumbai, focused on animation, VFX, video gaming, comics and extended reality. Its inaugural intake of 300 students is backed by partnerships with global tech leaders and top studios. I serve on IICT’s Governing Board, and what excites me is its mandate: to blend art, code and product thinking so graduates can ship content, not just complete coursework. It could be the IIT/IIM moment for creative-tech.
Technology is the other great unlock. The IndiaAI Mission, with an allocation of ₹10,371.92 crore, will provide public compute, shared datasets and a services marketplace. For creators, this means faster pre-visualisation, smarter audience insights, multilingual dubbing at scale, and safer communities through stronger moderation tools. With the right safeguards, AI will not replace imagination; it will amplify it, especially in a multilingual country like ours. EY estimates that generative AI could transform 38 million jobs in India by 2030, largely through productivity gains. For creative-tech, the takeaway is simple: companies that pair human storytelling with AI will ship more, faster, and across more languages while retaining cultural nuance.
To convert this momentum into leadership, we need a playbook. First, build a national talent pipeline. IICT should scale into a multi-city network linked to studios, game companies, OTTs and sports bodies, with apprenticeships and regional hubs. Second, fund IP, not just installs. Too much capital still chases short-term metrics; what we need are pools that back cross-media IP — worlds that can live as games, shows, music, comics and events. Third, treat AI as creative infrastructure. IndiaAI’s rollout should be accelerated and paired with sandboxes, synthetic-voice pilots, watermarking tools, so smaller studios and indie creators can access quality without prohibitive costs. Fourth, modernise rules for the new stack. The Online Gaming Act sets the tone; similar clarity is needed for monetisation, fair revenue shares, IP rights for AI-assisted works, and safety standards. Stability and predictability will pull global investment into India’s creative-tech grid.
If we succeed, three shifts will follow. Export-ready IP built on Indian stories will rise, drawing strength not just from cost advantages but from cultural context, the leap from feature phones to UPI, single-screen cinema to OTT, gully cricket to digital leagues. Those narratives, when turned into games or shows, will resonate globally. We will also unlock quality jobs across metros and emerging hubs, with AI amplifying productivity but human judgement and community stewardship growing in value. And alongside commerce, our cultural soft power will compound. Every esports finale, every game universe that sparks fan art and cosplay adds to brand India, carrying our stories far beyond our borders.
The first decade of Digital India was about pipes and platforms. The next must be about products and IP. With the Online Gaming Act as the latest enabler, and with systems like IICT, rails like IndiaAI, and capital that values IP, we have the foundation to lead. Build in Bharat. Ship to the world. With code, culture and confidence, we won’t just keep pace with the digital economy; we will set its tone.
{Views are personal; author is Founder & CEO, JetSynthesys; Chairman, CII India @100 Council; Co-Chairman, CII National Committee on Media & Entertainment; Board Member, Indian Institute of Creative Technology (IICT)}
India’s first digital sprint gave us affordable data and mass access. The next will be defined by what we build on top of that access, our own IP, immersive worlds, and AI-powered storytelling that can travel across languages and borders. With India set to cross 900 million internet users in 2025, the question is no longer who is online, but what do we build for them, and for the world?
A few weeks ago, India took an important step towards answering that question. The enactment of the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act is a watershed moment because it gives long-awaited legal clarity. For the first time, esports is explicitly recognised as an area of priority to be promoted. That clarity reduces brand and regulatory risk, builds investor confidence, and creates pathways for players, coaches and organisers. Coupled with recognition as a multi-sport event under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, its debut at the Khelo India Youth Games, and cash incentives for medal winners, competitive video gaming now sits firmly within India’s sporting and cultural ecosystem. In effect, it puts esports in the same frame as cricket and cinema, pillars of India’s cultural exports. And it signals something larger: that India is ready to back its creative-tech ecosystem with the legitimacy, rules, and guardrails needed to compete globally.
The scale is already visible. Media and entertainment touched about ₹2.5 trillion in 2024, with digital overtaking television as the largest segment. That shift shows how Indians are discovering and paying for content, and how Indian creators can reach global audiences without a passport. Video gaming is perhaps the clearest case of culture meeting code. India has 511 million video gamers today and gaming has grown rapidly with a strong path ahead. This growth is being driven by expanding paying cohorts and smarter monetisation through in-app purchases and ads. It proves a principle that when we design for India’s realities, mobile-first, vernacular, value pricing—scale follows.
Institutions are emerging too. Earlier this year, the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) opened its first campus in Mumbai, focused on animation, VFX, video gaming, comics and extended reality. Its inaugural intake of 300 students is backed by partnerships with global tech leaders and top studios. I serve on IICT’s Governing Board, and what excites me is its mandate: to blend art, code and product thinking so graduates can ship content, not just complete coursework. It could be the IIT/IIM moment for creative-tech.
Technology is the other great unlock. The IndiaAI Mission, with an allocation of ₹10,371.92 crore, will provide public compute, shared datasets and a services marketplace. For creators, this means faster pre-visualisation, smarter audience insights, multilingual dubbing at scale, and safer communities through stronger moderation tools. With the right safeguards, AI will not replace imagination; it will amplify it, especially in a multilingual country like ours. EY estimates that generative AI could transform 38 million jobs in India by 2030, largely through productivity gains. For creative-tech, the takeaway is simple: companies that pair human storytelling with AI will ship more, faster, and across more languages while retaining cultural nuance.
To convert this momentum into leadership, we need a playbook. First, build a national talent pipeline. IICT should scale into a multi-city network linked to studios, game companies, OTTs and sports bodies, with apprenticeships and regional hubs. Second, fund IP, not just installs. Too much capital still chases short-term metrics; what we need are pools that back cross-media IP — worlds that can live as games, shows, music, comics and events. Third, treat AI as creative infrastructure. IndiaAI’s rollout should be accelerated and paired with sandboxes, synthetic-voice pilots, watermarking tools, so smaller studios and indie creators can access quality without prohibitive costs. Fourth, modernise rules for the new stack. The Online Gaming Act sets the tone; similar clarity is needed for monetisation, fair revenue shares, IP rights for AI-assisted works, and safety standards. Stability and predictability will pull global investment into India’s creative-tech grid.
If we succeed, three shifts will follow. Export-ready IP built on Indian stories will rise, drawing strength not just from cost advantages but from cultural context, the leap from feature phones to UPI, single-screen cinema to OTT, gully cricket to digital leagues. Those narratives, when turned into games or shows, will resonate globally. We will also unlock quality jobs across metros and emerging hubs, with AI amplifying productivity but human judgement and community stewardship growing in value. And alongside commerce, our cultural soft power will compound. Every esports finale, every game universe that sparks fan art and cosplay adds to brand India, carrying our stories far beyond our borders.
The first decade of Digital India was about pipes and platforms. The next must be about products and IP. With the Online Gaming Act as the latest enabler, and with systems like IICT, rails like IndiaAI, and capital that values IP, we have the foundation to lead. Build in Bharat. Ship to the world. With code, culture and confidence, we won’t just keep pace with the digital economy; we will set its tone.
{Views are personal; author is Founder & CEO, JetSynthesys; Chairman, CII India @100 Council; Co-Chairman, CII National Committee on Media & Entertainment; Board Member, Indian Institute of Creative Technology (IICT)}