Finance
Minister Nirmala Sitharaman emphasised the need to tap the potential of animal,
visual effects, gaming and comics sectors – all are parts of the entertainment
and media industry – during her budget speech on Tuesday at Lok Sabha. She said
the government will form a task force that will assess the potential and come
up with recommendations that will increase jobs for the youths.

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“Animation,
visual effects, gaming and comics sector offers immense potential to employ
youth. An AVGC promotion task force with all stakeholders will be set up to
recommend ways to realise this and build domestic capacity for serving our
markets and the global demand,” Nirmala Sitharaman.  

The
media and entertainment industry is one of the worst-hit because of the raging
pandemic. The industry needs support from the government to get back on track.
India is one of the biggest movie production hubs in the world, with over 1500
movies being released annually across various languages. Since the pandemic
ravaged India, movies and web series opted for OTT platforms to sustain as
releasing movies in theatre was not possible. In 2021, over 200 web series was
launched in India. In the coming years, we could share the same feat by
unleashing a record number of OTT content pieces too.

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The
entertainment industry is the soft power of a country and Indian movies, web
series and serials have solid influence over the global community. So, to help
this industry recover to reach the pre-pandemic level will be among the
government’s top priorities.

Last
year, there were no allocations for the industry. This year, the government
must have had dialogues with various production houses as to how it could
support them to recover from the impact of the pandemic.

The
media and entertainment industry is a key sector for India to portray its image
to the world.