Unemployability is among the bigger challenges facing India (March 2021 average unemployment rate for India was 6.52 percent, of which urban unemployment was more than a percentage point higher than rural unemployment rates).
However, stated this way it does not define the problem to enable us to think of ways to handle it.
One way to look at the data is to start with looking at who is unemployed and to what extent. Is it the youth who are more unemployed, are the uneducated unemployed more than the educated, among the educated is it the ones with secondary level education or graduate level that are more unemployed?
The animation sector is the future of jobs.
Following the grand success of 2.0 and the Baahubali series, youngsters are making a beeline for the AVGC (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming & Comics) sector as never before. With more and more filmmakers and TV producers going in for technology-driven products such as VFX and animation in a big way to woo Gen X viewers, there is a growing demand for skilled professionals in the sector.Animation and VFX are one of the fastest-growing segments of the entertainment sector. Also, the number of professionals joining the industry is on the rise. In fact, there are around 26,000 jobs in the AVGC sector that require a graduate degree or above (around 38 percent of the total workforce in the sector). In the next 10 years, it is estimated that the AVGC sector will require 24,000 professionals with an educational qualification of graduation or above while on the other hand there will be around 16,000 students graduating from the recognized degree-awarding institutes.
A little over 3 months ago, during the announcement of the Union Budget for the year 2022-23, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his desire to make India a hub for game developers and gaming services after pointing out its vast potential. As we delve further into the rapidly evolving immersive content industry, the Indian Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming & Comics (AVCG) sector is making great progress, already contributing significantly to India’s multi-trillion dollar economy. It was upon this recognition of the sector’s growth and potential, that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the appointment of a national AVGC Task Force to put forth a coherent policy for building domestic capacity, intellectual capital, and employment for the sector.
