I’m in Mumbai for the NASSCOM Animation and Gaming India conference, where Kiran Karnik, President of NASSCOM called for a strong inclusive and cohesive voice from the gaming and animation industry that will enable the Industry to get attention from the government and states. “There is too much fragmentation, too many small groups. India is still a bit-player in the gaming business and the focus should be on growing the pie and building scale.” Another concern he voiced was the lack of adequate human resources – the skills required for high end work haven’t been developed to a scale yet. Most training initiatives so far are private, and there needs to be public-private partnership. But to take such initiatives to the government, there needs to be cohesion.
Biren Ghose, CEO of Kahani World Inc piped in during the curtain raiser, saying that India hasn’t yet understood how to promote games and animation. He called for the creation of a development fund for animation, because creating animated pilots themselves can cost around $100,000. A lot of people – like TV18 and EROS – are beginning to see value in ownership of IP are raising capital to acquire and create libraries of content.
I’ll be moderating a panel tomorrow on “Mobile Gaming: Hype or Reality”, and on the panel with me are Salil Bhargava, CEO of Jump Games, Manoj Dawane, CEO of Mauj, Krishna Durbha, Head VAS Business & Marketing for Reliance Infocomm and Sameer Bangara, COO of Indiagames. If you’re at the conference, do let me know – nikhil AT contentsutra DOT com.
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