Maharashtra cabinet clears policy for animation, gaming, extended reality

The parks will be developed in locations like Film City (Mumbai), Navi Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Kolhapur, Satara and Nagpur in Maharashtra. These parks will be equipped with facilities like high-speed digital connectivity, motion capture studios, post-production labs, high-performance rendering farms, sound recording facilities and virtual production studios. The infrastructure will include AI-based animation, real-time rendering, immersive experiences and metaverse-related applications to meet the needs of the industry.

Components such as AVGC-XR parks, clusters, regional clusters, testing and certification facilities (standardisation), centres of excellence, virtual production studios and design studios will be set up.

A total plan of Rs 3,268 crore was approved for the implementation of this policy, including Rs 308 crore for the first five years (2025-30) and an estimated Rs 2,960 crore for the next twenty years (2031-50). An additional provision of Rs 100 crore was approved for the implementation of this policy in the financial year 2025-26. Under this policy, a proposal was made to raise Rs 200 crore as WAVES (World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit) participation fund and Rs 300 crore to support startups of local entrepreneurs in this sector.

About 60 per cent of the area in integrated industrial areas (IIA), information technology parks and other facility centres will be reserved for these activities, while the remaining 40 per cent will be for ancillary businesses such as residential, institutional and recreational spaces. Also, the additional floor space index (FSI) included in the previous IT & ITES (Maharashtra Information Technology and Information Technology Enabled Services) Policy 2023 will be made available to these activities. This will further strengthen the infrastructure ecosystem for this sector, said a government release.

Apart from Maharashtra Information Technology Interface (MAHITI), the Maitri portal (MAITRI) will act as a one-stop hub. In order to ensure availability of required skilled manpower for this industry, a Maharashtra AVGC-XR Skill Advisory Committee is being constituted. The committee will include industry experts in this field, experts from universities and academia, representatives of various industry associations, the release said.

An official from the industries department said the state policy was needed as the AVGC-XR sector is considered an important component of the country’s Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry. “This sector is growing rapidly in India. The Media and Entertainment market is estimated to expand from the current $27 billion to over $100 billion by 2030. This is expected to create over 3 million direct jobs and over 5.15 million indirect jobs in India. This sector was also mentioned in the vision document prepared by the Maharashtra Economic Advisory Committee to make Maharashtra a $1 trillion economy,” he said.

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