Telangana to launch new AVGC policy to sharpen focus on innovation in gaming sector 

Telangana Industries and IT Minister D.Sridhar Babu and Tamil Nadu Minister for IT and Digital Services Palanivel Thiaga Rajan during a media interaction in Hyderabad on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Telangana and Tamil Nadu will explore possibilities of learning from the experience of each other in supporting and accelerating the growth of gaming sector, IT Ministers of the two State said here on Thursday (November 14, 2024).

With India an emerging player in the global gaming industry, the two States would like to make the most of the growth opportunities, Telangana Industries and IT Minister D. Sridhar Babu and Tamil Nadu Minister for IT and Digital Services Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said, while underscoring the need for Centre to extend support.

“Internally we will have healthy competition… [while exploring] how we can coordinate, how healthy practices in the other State can be incorporated in our State,” Mr. Sridhar Babu said.

He said the State was also pitching to the Centre the significance of a regional centre of the Indian Institute of Creative Technology being sanctioned to Hyderabad. The Ministers were interacting with the media at the India Game Developer Conference (IGDC).

Also, by January, the Telangana government plans to launch a new Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, and Comics (AVGC) policy as from the time the existing policy was announced the gaming industry has made big strides.

The State will also set up a hub of innovation sometime in the third quarter of 2025 to promote research and development, innovation and support startups in the field of AVGC. The focus will be also on strengthening the venture capital (VC) ecosystem.

Mr. Thiaga Rajan said Tamil Nadu plans to introduce, for the first time, AVGC Policy amid the scale of opportunity for the sector offered. He said the Centre should also support the States in harnessing the growth potential. “The Union government has not worked as closely as it should have or as even-handedly. Sometimes the decisions are skewed by political considerations. We have always insisted that the decisions should be apolitical,” he said.