New Delhi: A parliamentary panel on Monday urged the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to encourage the animation, visual effects, gaming and comics (AVGC) sector considering its growth during the Covid-induced lockdown. The Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology said it was concerned to note that even after eight years since the government announced the setting up of a National Centre of Excellence for Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (NCoE-AVGC), it has not seen the light of day.
The Committee noted that the project for setting up an NCoE-AVGC was actually a part of the budget announcement made in 2014-15 with the administrative approval of Rs 167.7 crore and was to be implemented in a four-year period from 2016-17 to 2019-20. "The Committee has expressed concern that even after almost 8 years, the NCoE-AVGC Centre has not seen the light of day. Keeping in view that AVGC sector is very prominent sector and is growing very fast particularly during COVID period because of lockdown, people have really got into the gaming industry and it is growing at 20 per cent per annum, the Ministry need to encourage this sector," the panel said in its 34th report on 'Demand for Grants (2022-23)'.
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It said during 2022-23, two of the thrust areas under film sector include setting up of an NCoE-AVGC at Mumbai and setting up of an AVGC promotion task force with all stakeholders to recommend ways to realise AVGC potential and build domestic capacity for serving market demand. The Committee said the setting up of a National Centre of Excellence is long overdue and this step should have been taken at the inception itself when the plan for setting up of NCoE- AVGC had been conceived way back in 2016-17.
It noted that for supporting this sector and to boost employment in this sector, the government had proposed to form an AVGC promotion task force. "Now that the Ministry is working towards incentivising the sector, the Committee has recommended the Ministry to firm up the plan of action and timeline for setting up of the task force and inform the Committee of the outcome. "The Inter-Ministerial task force will include the Ministry of Education, Minister of Skill Development, Department of Commerce and DPIIT etc. and this task force will be an interface between the industry as well as the educational institutions and the skill institutions," the panel report said.
