Nearly a month after union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the Content Creator Labs in 15,000 schools and 500 colleges, the work has already begun for the same. Spearheaded by the Mumbai-based Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT), the labs will cater to the Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) content.
In the announcement made during budget speech on February 1, Sitharaman said that the government will provide a support of Rs 250 crore in setting up of these labs. “India’s AVGC is a growing industry projected to require two million professionals by 2030. I propose to support the IICT Mumbai in setting up AVCG content creator labs in 15,000 secondary schools all over the country and 500 colleges,” she had said.
Speaking with the UNI, IICT’s Chief Executive Officer Dr. Vishwas Deoskar said that recently a workshop was held with 75 stakeholders including the people from the industry. The workshop brought together officers from the NITI Aayog, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, members of Board, Governing Councils, Academic Council, R&D Council, Skill Council and Industry Development Council of IICT, representatives from the States, Industry Association and Academia.
Giving the key highlights of the workshop, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting stated that the proposed labs shall function as advanced creative studios, providing students with hands-on exposure to professional production pipelines using industry-standard software and hardware.
The discussions focused on aligning lab activities with the National Education Policy (NEP) to ensure students receive foundational exposure and specialised training in creative domains.
The leadership emphasised the need for mentorship programmes and original intellectual property (IP) creation within these labs to enhance global employability and foster creative entrepreneurship.
Participants also highlighted the importance of coordination between national missions and state education departments to scale the initiative effectively across the country.
Elaborating further on the upcoming project, Deoskar said that the labs will hugely benefit the students.
“Once the labs are up and running in the first phase, the number is bound to increase with more labs coming up in additional schools. It requires a lot of work as we want to come up with a proper curriculum and plan for the students. It will require a different skill set for middle school, secondary school and senior secondary school students,” he said.
Called India’s lighthouse for AVGC-XR, IICT was made operational in July last year with the enrolment of its first batch. Established by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in collaboration with the Government of Maharashtra, FICCI and CII under a public-private partnership model, the institute was initially launched as the National Centre of Excellence (NCoE) for AVGC-XR with a one-time budgetary support of Rs 391.15 crore approved on September 19, 2024. It was later rechristened as IICT.
Functioning from its temporary campus at National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) in Mumbai, the institute currently offers 18 specialised courses, including two-year undergraduate diploma programmes, one-year diploma courses and short-term certificate programmes of three and six months.