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Karnataka unveils animation policy
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/karnataka-unveils-animation-policy/466267/
Courtesy: BS Reporter / Chennai/ Bangalore Mar 01, 2012, 00:13 IST

The state government on Wednesday introduced the Karnataka animation, visual effects, gaming and comics (AVGC) policy 2012. With this, the government intends to make the state a favoured destination for the animation sector along with IT and biotech. Karnataka is the first state to launch an exclusive policy for animation and gaming sectors in the country.

"With the introduction of the policy, we are planning to promote and bring in investment for the animation sector and thereby create job opportunity in the state," labour minister B N Bachegowda said.

The global animation market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 10 per cent and reach $100 billion by the end of 2012. The Indian animation industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 22 per cent to reach $1 billion by 2012.

As part of the policy, a separate venture capital fund has been created for AVGC sector worth Rs 50 crore to be funded jointly by the state government and private VCs of which, the government's contribution will be 26 per cent.

The government in the policy also said it would set up centre of excellence for AVGC in Bangalore under public-private partnership with modern facilities. For the centre of excellence, the central government will contribute 30 per cent to the cost, while the state government and industry-private partners will contribute 20 and 50 per cent respectively.

Apart from this, the CoE will have a finishing academy-cum-incubation centre at an estimated cost of Rs 50 crore and a post production and digital intermediary facility of Rs 30 crore.

The policy, created in consultation with various stakeholders, also provides various incentives to the industry. For instance, the AVGC sector would be eligible to avail itself of all the fiscal incentives and concession as provided in the Karnataka Industrial Policy 2009-2014.

For creation of infrastructure, the policy also emphasizes on creation of AVGC public and private parks at the SEZ identified locations. The government also said it planned to earmark land for the AVGC sector in the proposed information technology investment region (ITIR) near Bangalore international airport.

With the new policy, the government expects the revenues of the AVGC sector to grow 40 per cent in the next three years. At present, the state has more than 20 training institutes imparting AVGC-related training through over 60 campuses.

Karnataka fine tuning policy in drive to make it the animation, VFX hub

http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k12/apr/apr130.php
Courtesy: Indiantelevision.com 14 April 2012.

BANGALORE: "This is just the 1.0 version of the Karnataka Government‘s AVGC (animation, visual effects, gaming and comics) policy. We can expect 1.2 and 2.0 and 3.0 and more versions to evolve over time based on the inputs from the industry" said the Government of Karnataka‘ Principal Secretary Department of IT, BT, S&T and e-Governance, during his special address at the AVGC Investor Summit organised by ABAI and Department of IT,BT, S&T and e-Governance at Bangalore

Vidyashankar said that Government of Karnataka would do everything it possibly could for the ‘Made in Bangalore’ tag for the products and services by AVGC industry. To that extent, he added that the Karnataka Government would try and develop an ecosystem as is seen in countries like Thailand and South Korea.

Vidyashankar also announced the setting up of an innovation cluster in Yelahanka where the total investment would be to the tune of Rs 1.2 to 1.3 billion. The Government wanted to make Bangalore an innovation hub and for this endeavor the required land had been identified at Yelahanka, a suburb near the outskirts of Bangalore. Vidyashankar indicated a timeline for completion of the innovation center as the end of next year.

Vidyashankar also stated that the biggest Aerospace park was going to be established near Bangalore Airport with investments of $14 to 15 billion. The Karnataka government was planning an exhaustive document about where the city of Bangalore stands vis-a-vis the rest of the country in terms of growth and investments.

2012: India will do lot more in animation

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-12-29/computing/30568314_1_indian-animation-and-gaming-crest-animation-rhythm-hues
Courtesy: Mini Joseph Tejaswi, TNN Dec 29, 2011, 02.36PM IST

BANGALORE: The year 2012 will reset the pace of growth of India's gaming and animation businesses. What happened in mature game and movie markets like the US, Europe and Japan over three decades will take place in India in a much shorter time, and the coming year will be the inflection point.

Cost-effective smartphones, computing devices, internet and social media will fuel the appetite for games, animated content and consoles among young and the old alike. People have started consuming such content even on DTH (direct to home) TV platforms.

Developed markets moved gradually, from coinoperated arcade machines to computer games to consoles to games on handheld devices, internet games, mobile games and social games. "In India, it is sort of happening at one go and all these platforms are going to push the growth of the industry in a big way," says Rajesh Rao, CEO of Dhruva Interactive.

The year 2011 upped the ante in animation for fulllength feature films. Tintin, Rango, Puss in Boots, Kung Fu Panda 2, Rio, Cars 2, Happy Feet 2, Smurfs and Gnomeo & Juliet took animation to a new level.

Biren Ghose, country head of Technicolor India, says India had a hand in many of these movies. "India also worked on movies in the Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean and X-Men series. This is a quantum jump in the level of expertise and a tribute to local artists and technicians," he says.

Technicolor India did a significant amount of work for DreamWorks Animation's Puss in Boots. The Indian crew included animators, lighting artists, special effects experts, atmosphereand volume metric experts, image rendering specialists, secondary animation experts and simulation specialists.

Ghose says a lot more visual effects work will happen in India. "The estimate is over 20 major international titles will have value addition from Indian VFX studios," he said. India is a lower cost destination for global film studios, and talent too is rapidly improving . The growing domestic market is also spurring animation action.

Rajiv Vaishnav, vice president in IT industry body Nasscom, says 2012 will also see a major mindset change. "The outlook for the industry is changing with parents increasingly allowing their children to pursue careers in animation, visual effects, graphics or game development. It was an eye opener for the industry when a parent came along with his son to a recent Nasscom game developer conference in Pune,'' he says.

Many co-production treaties have been signed by leading Indian animation and gaming players like DQ Entertainment, Crest Animation, Technicolor Bangalore, GreenGold, Tata Elxsi, Red Chillies, PrimeFocus, Rhythm & Hues, Anibrains and Toons Animation with studious and producers in Canada, Britain, America and many parts of Asia.

The impact of these agreements will unfold next year and beyond.
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-02-17/news/31071463_1_animation-industry-tax-holiday-import-duty

Budget 2012: 10 years tax holiday required for animation industry, says FICCI

Courtesy: Economic Times Feb 17, 2012, 07.04PM IST

FICCI in its pre-budget memorandum has given the following recommendations for Animation, Gaming & VFX industry:

• On the lines of IITs and IIMs, Government should consider setting up Centers of Excellence for the Animation,Gaming & which also offers opportunities for applied and commercial and others type of arts
• 10 Years Tax Holiday for Animation Industry.
• Exemption of Import Duty on Hardware for a Period of 10 Years.
• Provision of 50% reimbursable MDA (Market Development Assistance) for travel and registration fees to international market events. Government to extend support under MDA/MAI activity - exhibiting Indian companies, by setting Indian Pavilions in the world markets. What is needed is to help bring local production companies to international markets, collected and disseminate information and help support the infrastructure needed for a healthy media market to develop.
• To promote domestic gaming market, Excise Duty on local manufacture should be brought down from 12.5% to 0% (similar to film and music industry). This will enable CVD to be brought to zero also. The effective reduction in taxes would be around 15%. Import duty on consoles (Gaming hardware) which will increase the installed base to enable the local developer ecosystem to flourish needs to be brought down to 0%.
• Mandate should be given to commercial bankers to treat animation sector on priority. This will enable them to provide funds at concessional rate.
• Encouragement should be given to entities through reduced tax rates/incentives (exempt withholding taxes for overseas payments to foreign artists stationed overseas) for exploitation of own developed content in overseas markets.
• The MAT applicability for units undertaking animation work in SEZ should be withdrawn to encourage export of animated contents.
• The government should introduce subsidies like a CNC Fund (in France) to fund animated content co-produced and developed in India to enable Indian producers to be competitive on a global scale.