The Hindu Business Line : `Animation, gaming sector to see 10-fold growth' — Creating manpower base through colleges urgent, says Karnik

Ms K. Ratna Prabha, IT Principal Secretary, (AP), and Mr. Kiran Karnik, Nasscom President, releasing the report on `Animation & gaming industry in India' in Hyderabad on Thursday. - - K. Ramesh Babu

Hyderabad , Jan.12

THE National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) has projected that the country's animation and gaming sector would grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 35 per cent and 78 per cent respectively to reach $950 million and $300 million by 2009.

This reflects a ten-fold increase, although on a smaller base, from $30 million in 2005 to $300 million by 2009 for the gaming industry. In the case of the animation sector, it would grow from $285 million to $950 million. However, this could potentially be much higher given the advantages Indian professionals bring to companies abroad.

The President of Nasscom, Mr. Kiran Karnik, said the rapid growth of mobile telephony, increase in personal computers and greater use of animation content will fuel the growth of the domestic market too. "If India focuses on developing the talent pool and leveraging the cost competitiveness, animation and gaming look like the next promising fields."

Releasing the findings of the Animation Report here at the Animation India 2006, Mr Karnik said India has advantage of a vibrant entertainment industry, a large consumer base and technology expertise. "All we need to do is to synergise these to play a larger role," he said.

"While companies engaged in the industry typically train people to meet their requirement, we need to play a role similar to what three southern States managed to do so by creating a manpower base through engineering colleges. Unless we do this, we would not be able to meet the requirement of about 30,000 professionals by 2009," he said.

"If you look at global players such as Sony Entertainment, Viacom, Time Warner and Virgin, they are all looking at India as a market and a resource base. Virgin has recently announced partnership with film firector Shekhar Kapur, reflecting the possibilities such synergies could bring in," he explained.

Mr Karnik said, "Given the need to grow this industry and create the necessary base to tap a growing market, we need to adopt a cluster approach to development."

Mr Karnik said, "Unlike other IT-enabled services, animation is investment intensive and calls for specialised training. India does not have specialised training centres except the one at Ahmedabad. Andhara Pradesh is seeking to set up an animation academy and we need more such efforts," he said.