India’s creative industry found mention in Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget speech on Sunday, as she announced plans to boost the country’s ‘orange economy’.

Sitharaman said that India’s Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) sector is a growing industry projected to require two million professionals by 2030. “I propose to support the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies, Mumbai, in setting up AVGC content creator labs in 15,000 secondary schools all over the country and 500 colleges,” said the FM.

She added that the Indian design industry is expanding rapidly and yet there is a shortage of Indian designers. “I propose to establish, through challenge route, a new National Institute of Design to boost design education and development in the eastern region of India,” said Sitharaman.

When speaking about heritage and culture tourism, the FM talked about developing 15 archaeological sites, including Lothal, Dholavira, Rakhigarhi, Adichanallur, Sarnath, Hastinapur and Leh Palace, into “vibrant, experiential cultural destinations”.

“Excavated landscapes will be opened to the public through curated walkways. Immersive storytelling skills and technologies will be introduced to help conservation labs, interpretation centres, and guides,” she added.

These initiatives are in keeping with the Economic Survey 2025-26 findings, which state that revenue from gaming in 2024 was around Rs 232 billion, while animation and VFX amounted to around Rs 103 billion. Live entertainment accounted for more than Rs 100 billion in 2024, with strong spillovers to tourism and urban services.

According to Sanjoy Roy, a leading cultural entrepreneur and Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, which produces some of the country’s top events including the Jaipur Literature Festival and the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards, the Finance Minister’s announcement was “much needed and totally brilliant”

“It has taken years and, perhaps Coldplay, to bring about an awakening on the creative sector’s role in creating jobs and contributing to the local economy. More importantly, a creative economy is the basis for the innovation sector. Just five days of the Jaipur Lit Fest contribute over Rs 100 crore to the local economy,” he said.

Roy added that India needs to look at the export of creative services and at leveraging our smart power. “While we have been taking Festivals of India across the world with almost no incentive, it can lead to more awareness and long tourist traffic. The Jaipur Lit Fest editions are an example of this where more and more groups of people come to India,” he said.

Former Colombian President Iván Duque Márquez and former culture minister Felipe Buitrago are credited with first using the term “orange economy”. In their 2013 book ‘The Orange Economy: An Infinite Opportunity’, they write, “The Orange Economy is the group of linked activities through which ideas are transformed into cultural goods and services whose value is determined by intellectual property. The orange universe includes: i) The Cultural Economy and the Creative industries which share the Conventional Cultural Industries; and ii) creativity supporting activities.”

About why they chose ‘orange’, the book says that the colour “has often been associated with culture, creativity, and identity” and holds a special place in many religions.

In an interview with UN News in 2024, Buitrago said, “When you think about activities such as audiovisual, filmmaking, television, video games, music in all its forms as well as crafts, visual arts, theatre and also, activities like design, fashion, and increasingly other digital expressions of communication, you are talking about something that represents us, our identity in various forms…That’s a very powerful sector of the economy,” he said.

Other ‘colours’ of the economy

Many sectors of the economy are linked with colours. Green Economy signifies an energy-efficient, sustainable industry, while White Economy refers to health and social care. Blue and Silver refer to the marine economy and the ageing sectors respectively.

The present state of the creative sector in India

Globally, the creative economy is estimated to generate an annual revenue of more than $2 trillion and generate nearly 50 million jobs.

About India, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri had said in August 2024 at the launch of the All India Initiative on Creative Economy, “The creative industry in India is now a $30 billion industry and is responsible for the employment of nearly 8 per cent of India’s working population.”

He added that creative exports had increased by 20 per cent in 2023-24 alone, earning more than $11 billion. “The industry is expected to see remarkable growth in the coming years,” he added.

Sanjoy Roy sheds light on the problems that organisers often face, including permissions and clearance. “The steps to set up single-windows clearance is the right way to go. Maharashtra and Delhi have been trying to do a single window for 10 years,” he said.