Tech Shout!

NASSCOM Animation & Gaming India 2006 took off to with a spectacular start on Thursday, 12th Jan at the TAJ Krishna in Hyderabad.

From the developers’ perspective, the annual study on Animation and Gaming Industry in India by NASSCOM has estimated the size of the Indian animation market at US$ 285 Million for 2005, while the market for Gaming development in India was estimated at around US$ 30 Million.

The study expects Indian animation to observe a CAGR of 35% (2005 to 2009) and reach US$950 million by 2009. Gaming is expected to witness a CAGR of 78% and grow to US$ 300 million by 2009, with Mobile Gaming ruling the segment.

While delivering the welcome speech, NASSCOM President Kiran Karnik advised the industry to exhibit harmony and asked everybody to focus on increasing the market size. “A rising tide raises all boats” he said, adding, “We have seen things reaching the cusp of a take off point in the last one year. We must now focus on increasing the pie.”

Making an interesting observation, Karnik remarked,” India is the only country besides the US which has a strong enertainment market and production base (Bollywood) as well as equally strong talent in IT, which makes the case for success in animation all the more strong. However currently even while the global markets are emerging at US$40 Billion, India is nowhere on the graph and is still on the third or fourth decimal point”

While addressing, Andhra Pradesh IT secy Ratnaprabha stated, “The kind of awareness that NASSCOM has been pushing on Animation is an eye opener for us. We will renew our thrust on animation” she said referring to the JNTU animation schooling project which was announced at last year’s NASSCOM summit on animation.

Animation Bridge CEO Biren Ghose who has been very closely involved with NASSCOM in helping plan this year’s conference provided also expressed his views.

Some of the some points made were:-
- Lot more work being shared between companies
- Value recognition for Indian animation and gaming companies
- India has begun to attract players of a higher pedigree
- Sharp increase in local content curve

Concluding the opening session Ghose concluded by hitting upon the need for understanding the world of kids better so as to make possible better and more focused content creation.