Indians consume 20 GB a month as against the global average data consumption of 12 GB, indicating the country was an avid data consuming market, said Nivruti Rai, MD, and CEO, Invest India, the National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency of India set up as a non-profit venture under the aegis of the Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
Something that helped the country is the low data tariff thanks to its policies on competitive environment. For instance, the per GB data costs 13 cents in India, when globally it costs $3.5 on an average, while some geographies pay $5 to $10 per GB, she said.
According to Ms. Rai, the country’s media and entertainment sector is currently pegged at $26 billion and television, digital, and print media accounted for 80% of the total chunk.
Growing at a CAGR of 10%, the segment is expected to reach $35 billion and double that by 2030.
However, she said, the current share of AVGC-XR segment was only a small fraction at over $3 billion, but was growing exponentially. Also, when the country has over 5 million knowledge workers, the country only has 20,000 gamers which is a huge gap.
Focus on Indian stories
Game developers and animators should focus on developing products based on characters and stories from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and Indian mythologies, Ms. Rai urged the AVGC-XR community at Bengaluru GAFX 2024 here on Monday.
“Our history dating back 5,000 to 7,000 years may not be documented but it is all there for us to explore today,” she said. “I really feel we have content, we have stories to tell. I’m really happy that developers are building stories from the Mahabharata and the Ramayana and the world is accepting those stories and heroes,’‘ she added.
Chhota Bheem was loved by people across the globe, and even Japan has its own version and the opportunities available for game developers in India were huge, said Ms. Rai, who was formerly the country head of Intel India.
