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Nasscom's 'Animation & Gaming India 2008' begins
By siliconindia
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Friday, 07 November 2008, 17:19 IST
Mumbai: Nasscom, the trade body of the IT industry in India kicked off its annual 'Nasscom Animation and Gaming India 2008' on Thursday, in Hyderabad. The two-day event has been specifically structured to chart out the vision, set aspirations and identify strategic imperatives to address global opportunities for these sectors in India.
Speaking on the occasion Dr. Ganesh Natarajan, Chairman, Nasscom and Global CEO, Zensar said "We realize that it is critical to nurture the animation and gaming industry to ensure further growth. The fiercely competitive global market place calls for disciplined effort as well as policy measures in this direction. Providing tax breaks and holidays to animation and gaming development studios, setting up education centers, cutting import duty for gaming consoles as well as equipment or software required for game production and setting up special zones to create an entire ecosystem will go a long way in accelerating industry growth".
Som Mittal, President, Nasscom, said "The world is looking towards India as a gaming and animation hub and we believe that India is well placed to leverage this opportunity. Indian gaming and animation industry has outpaced the growth rates of its counterparts and the last few years have seen the industry evolve and mature to deliver high international standard projects. Some of the inherent factors that have contributed to India's rise in the animation and gaming space are availability of the right skill sets, growing maturity of animation studios, increase in number of co-production ventures, development of intellectual property, growing consumer demand from the domestic market and of course, cost attractiveness."
The highlights of the annual Nasscom report on 'Indian Animation and Gaming 2008' will also be released on the occasion of the event. This report, by Nasscom and Ernst & Young will provide a detailed insight on the current trends, key growth drivers, issues and future strategies for these sectors. The animation industry in India is estimated to be at $460 million in 2008 and set to grow at a CAGR of 27 percent to reach $1163 million by 2012. The market has been defined as animation entertainment ($120 million), animation education ($53 million) and custom content development ($187 million) and multimedia/web design ($100million). The education segment is projected to have the maximum growth rate at about 40 percent per annum. By the end of 2008, the gaming industry in India is expected to be valued at $212 million. It is expected to reach $1060 million by 2012 at a CAGR of 50 percent.
Farokh Balsara, National Sector Leader, Media and Entertainment Practice, Ernst & Young, says, "With all the groundwork already in place, the domestic animation and gaming industry is on the threshold of growth. With improved skill sets and the ability to develop and produce high quality work, the industry has moved up the value chain." He further added, "with change in the intellectual property ownership, the rights of animation will be retained by the developers which will enable them to exploit alternate revenue streams such as merchandising and sale on digital platforms."
