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The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT), Mumbai and Netflix announced scholarships for 100 students, covering up to 80% of the cost of six professional programmes.
The six programmes are two one-year diplomas (Interactive Comics & Sequential Arts; Visual Effects Mastery) and four six-month certificates (Virtual Art Department Content Creation; Media Tech Workflow; Art of Character Animation; E-Sports & Gaming Management), open to students and working professionals across India.
The scholarships flow from the Netflix India Storytelling Initiative launched after the Prime Minister met Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos on 5 August 2026; Netflix also gave curriculum inputs for the Visual Effects Mastery and Media Tech Workflow courses.
India's national Centre of Excellence for the AVGC-XR sector (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics, Extended Reality). Registered as a not-for-profit Section 8 company; it began its first academic session in September 2025 and runs specialised programmes in animation, gaming, comics, post-production and XR. It is designed on a hub-and-spoke model, with regional centres of excellence envisaged in partnership with states.
Nodal ministry for broadcasting, films, print and the AVGC-XR sector; it set up IICT and organises the WAVES summit. Union Minister: Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, who also holds Railways and Electronics & IT.
Central agency under the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting for financing, producing and promoting quality Indian cinema; IICT currently operates out of its Mumbai complex, and NFDC anchors the WAVES summit and film-festival ecosystem.
The two apex industry chambers are equity partners in IICT, holding 26% each - together a 52% industry majority against the governments' 48%. FICCI also runs an AVGC-XR Forum (chaired by Munjal Shroff) and co-publishes the annual FICCI-EY report on India's media and entertainment sector.
Constituted by the Government of India in April 2022 to build a national strategy for the Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics sector; it submitted its report in December 2022.
Key: Recommended a National Centre of Excellence for AVGC as an international reference point for skilling, education, industry development and research, plus regional centres with state governments, a National AVGC-XR Mission with a budget outlay, a 'Create in India' campaign, and AVGC accelerators in academic institutions.
The Task Force recommendation put into effect - approved by the Union Cabinet on 19 September 2024 to anchor skilling, IP creation and industry-academia linkage for the creative-technology sector.
Key: Operationalised as IICT in Mumbai with one-time Central budgetary support of Rs 391.15 crore; industry partnerships for curriculum and placement include Google, Meta, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Adobe, YouTube and JioStar.
Announced after the Prime Minister's meeting with Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos on 5 August 2026, to invest in India's creative talent pipeline with industry-relevant skills across the AVGC ecosystem.
Key: Its first concrete output is the 26 August 2026 IICT-Netflix scholarship for 100 students with up to 80% support, plus Netflix inputs into the Visual Effects Mastery and Media Tech Workflow curricula.
The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting's flagship global platform for the media, entertainment and creative-technology industry, intended to position India as a hub for content creation.
Key: The first edition was held on 1-4 May 2025 at the Jio World Convention Centre, Mumbai, inaugurated by the Prime Minister, with participation from over 90 countries and more than 10,000 delegates. It was at WAVES 2025 that the Prime Minister spoke of the 'dawn of the Orange Economy'.
The 'Orange Economy' is the term now used in Indian policy for the creative economy - economic activity whose raw material is imagination rather than land, ore or machinery. Indian usage frames it around three pillars: Content, Creativity and Culture. AVGC-XR is its most technology-intensive slice: Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics and Extended Reality (the umbrella for augmented, virtual and mixed reality). Government interest in it is threefold - it is labour-absorbing and skill-led, it earns foreign exchange because VFX and animation work is commissioned globally, and it is a soft-power channel because the content itself carries Indian stories. That is why the policy answer was an institution (IICT) rather than a subsidy: the binding constraint the AVGC Task Force identified was trained talent, not capital.
Simple Analogy: Think of IICT as an IIT for the creative-technology industry - the state builds the training pipeline, and studios, platforms and industry chambers supply the curriculum and hire the output.
IICT is registered as a Section 8 (not-for-profit) company. Such a company applies its income only to promoting its stated objects and pays no dividend to members - the form that lets the Union government, a state government and two industry chambers hold equity in one body without it becoming a commercial venture.
Places films, broadcasting and audio-visual content with the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, which is why a national institute for animation, gaming and XR sits under I&B rather than under the education or skill-development ministry.
Government of India constitutes the AVGC Promotion Task Force.
Task Force submits its report - recommends a National Centre of Excellence, a National AVGC-XR Mission and a 'Create in India' campaign.
Union Cabinet approves the National Centre of Excellence for AVGC-XR at Mumbai, with Rs 391.15 crore one-time support.
First WAVES summit at the Jio World Convention Centre, Mumbai; the Prime Minister describes it as the dawn of India's 'Orange Economy'.
IICT begins its first academic session from the NFDC Complex, Pedder Road, Mumbai.
Prime Minister meets Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos; the Netflix India Storytelling Initiative is launched.
IICT and Netflix announce scholarships for 100 students with up to 80% support across six programmes.
AVGC-XR is treated in Indian policy as a soft-power instrument - the same logic that runs through WAVES, the Indian Panorama and international co-production treaties. Useful for GS Paper 2 questions on India's soft power.
IICT is a skilling institution first: the Task Force's diagnosis was a talent gap, not a capital gap. Links to GS Paper 3 questions on employment, industry-academia linkage and the services sector.
A Section 8 company in which two governments hold 48% and two industry chambers 52% is a distinct model from a statutory body or a central university - a good example of how the state now builds sectoral institutions.
The FICCI-EY report for 2025 records digital media crossing Rs 1 trillion and becoming the largest M&E segment - the structural shift that makes creative-technology skills economically central.
GS Paper 2 > Governance > Government policies and institutions; GS Paper 3 > Indian Economy > Growth, employment and the services sector
General Awareness > Government institutions, schemes and current affairs
General Awareness > Indian economy, sectoral growth and industry bodies
General Awareness > Current affairs and national institutions
The creative economy, WAVES and the AVGC-XR push have recurred steadily in government communication since 2022 and are a live source for prelims-style factual questions.
Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics and Extended Reality - the creative-technology sector for which IICT is the national centre of excellence.
The creative economy, framed in Indian policy around Content, Creativity and Culture; the phrase entered official usage at the WAVES 2025 summit.
A not-for-profit company under the Companies Act, 2013 that applies its income only to its stated objects and pays no dividend; IICT's legal form.
The umbrella term covering augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR).