Budget 2022: Govt to set up AVGC task force to employ youth in animation sector

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, during her Budget speech for the financial year 2022-2023, announced that the government is going to set up an Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, and Comics (AVGC) task force. This task force is going to help build domestic capacity to serve the Indian markets and also meet global demand.

"Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, and Comics (AVGC) task force will be set up to build domestic capacity to serve our markets and global demand,” Sitharaman said.

Jehil Thakkar, partner and media and entertainment sector leader, Deloitte India, said, "The setting up of the AVGC promotion task force announced in the Union Budget will help India achieve its potential of achieving 20 lakh jobs according to Deloitte projections. These are critical skills for growth of the metaverse and India is poised to take advantage of this ecosystem."

All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), India's Indian regulatory body for technical education, will be responsible to shape up the syllabi for Urban Planning courses, Sitharaman said and added that the AVGC task force is going to seek recommendations to create the way forward.

Paavan Nanda, Co-founder, WinZO, while expressing his reaction on on AVGC task force in India’s Budget 2022, said, “We welcome the Finance Minister’s announcement during Budget 2022 to set up an Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, and Comics (AVGC) task force with the objective of building domestic capacity to serve our markets and global demand. Gaming is a soon-to-be trillion-dollar industry, and it is heartening to see that the Government of India has acknowledged the exponential potential that this sector holds.”  

“As a giant step towards contributing to the same, WinZO launched the country’s first-ever national-level scholarship program called B.O.S.S (Battle of Super Scholars) and unveiled a $26M Game Developer's fund with an aim to provide a platform to the best minds to disrupt this emerging global gaming industry. WinZO, as a leading game tech company, will be willing to work with public stakeholders to attract the best talent to this growing industry,” Nanda added.