Mumbai, Sep 16 (IANS) The Maharashtra Cabinet on Tuesday, chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, approved the state’s Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics and Extended Reality (AVGC-XR) Policy 2025, with the twin goals of attracting investments worth Rs 50,000 crore over the next 25 years and generating 2 lakh jobs in high-technology sectors.
The state government claims it is an important step towards making Mumbai the capital of the entertainment and tourism sector. The government has accorded it the status of an industry and infrastructure sector. This policy has a long-term vision extending up to the year 2050.
The government cleared a total outlay of Rs 3,268 crore 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 financial year 2025-26. Under this policy, a proposal was made to raise Rs 200 crore WAVES participation fund and a Rs 300 crore fund to support startups of local entrepreneurs in this sector.
According to the policy, AVGC-XR Parks will be developed as dedicated industrial hubs. These parks will be equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure. All the amenities for business and incentives to startups, MSMEs, and large entities operating in this sector will be provided. 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 world-class 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.
About 60 per cent of the Integrated Industrial Area (IIA), Information Technology Park, and other facility centers 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 Area 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, according to the government.
Components such as AVGC-XR Park, as well as clusters, regional clusters, testing and certification facilities (standardization), centers of excellence, virtual production studios, and design studios will be set up. The AVGC-XR initiative can be started in any zone.
Also, these initiatives will be allowed to operate under the 24/7 policy by following the safety norms prescribed by the Labor Department and other concerned authorities. There will be a special room on the Maharashtra Information Technology Interface (MAHITI) portal for these initiatives.
Apart from this, the Maitri portal (MAITRI) will act as a one-stop hub. To ensure the availability of required skilled manpower for this industry, a Maharashtra AVGC-XR Skill Advisory Committee is being constituted. The committee will include industry experts from universities and academia, representatives of various industry associations.
The government said the policy was needed as the Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics, and Extended Reality (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. This sector was also mentioned in the vision document prepared by the Maharashtra Economic Advisory Committee to make Maharashtra a $1 trillion economy. With this in mind, the Central Government had recently organised an international conference called WAVES 2025 in Mumbai.
The government said that there are more than 295 studios in the field of Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics, and Extended Reality (AVGC-XR) in Maharashtra. The highest number of studios in India, almost 30 per cent, is in Maharashtra. At least 20 institutions are providing educational facilities for animation, visual effects, and gaming in Mumbai and Pune.
“There is a huge scope for innovation, entrepreneurship, and intellectual property creation in this sector. Maharashtra has a unique opportunity to emerge as a global AVGC-XR destination,” the government said.
–IANS
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