Karnataka Poised To Become the Gaming and Animation Capital of Asia: Priyank Kharge The minister added that he was keen to host India's first government-sponsored eSports Olympics
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The Minister of Information Technology and Biotechnology, Government of Karnataka Priyank Kharge, on Tuesday, delivered a special address at the second edition of the Indian Gaming Convention (IGC).
In 2023, India became the largest gaming market in the world, boasting 568 million gamers and achieving a remarkable 9.5 billion downloads of gaming apps. He said that India had close to 1400 online gaming start-ups in 2023 and that Karnataka could play a pivotal in the gaming and animation industry. "Karnataka has all that is needed to ensure that we become the gaming and the animation capital of not only this country but also of Asia," said Priyank Kharge, the Minister of Information Technology and Biotechnology, Government of Karnataka.
The state and Bengaluru run over 27 centres of excellence. The minister added that he was keen to host India's first government-sponsored eSports Olympics. "We will also have a gaming accelerator by the end of this financial year," he added.
The Karnataka Information Technology Venture Capital Fund (KITVEN), backed by the state government, introduced a dedicated fund with a corpus of Rs 20 crore earlier this year. The fund will look to invest between INR 0.5 crore and INR 2 crore in early-stage startups.
In February 2024, the state government proposed an investment of INR 150 crore towards the revised Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics, and Extended Reality (AVGC-XR) policy for the period 2024-2029. The policy will look to create 30,000 jobs in the AVGC sector by 2029.
"The new AVGC policy that we have announced recently ensures that more IPs come out from Karnataka. We are developing skills for the sector, we are incubating and nurturing leadership for the sector. We have a physical space for ideation, innovations and inventions for startups for the sector and we want to create as many IPs as possible from the state of Karnataka. We run a program called Elevate which is very unique to Karnataka where we offer a grant of 50 lakh rupees to the startups. Last year, we funded close to around 30 startups that are in the AVGC sector. Overall we have funded close to around 983 startups," he concluded.
