During India’s first World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES) 2025 in Mumbai, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the dawn of the ‘Orange Economy.’ He highlighted how creators—from Guwahati musicians and Kochi podcasters to Bengaluru game designers and Punjabi filmmakers—are powering India’s march towards a $5 trillion economy. The orange economy, also known as the creative economy, draws on individuals’ creativity, skills, and talent to generate jobs, wealth, and cultural value, strengthening India’s economic growth and soft power footprint. It encompasses a range of traditional and contemporary creative sectors—from performing arts, handicrafts, architecture, literature, food, and fashion to film, music, and television, along with new digital domains like gaming and animation.
Anchored in knowledge and innovation, the orange economy marks a paradigm shift in how we value creation, from manufacture to ‘mindfacture’1 where intangible assets such as ideas, design, and storytelling become as crucial as physical capital. The term was first popularised by former Colombian president Iván Duque Márquez and culture minister Felipe Buitrago, as the colour orange symbolises creativity and spirituality across cultures. The United Nations Creative Economy Network states that creative industries link technology, intellectual property, and tourism, generating cross-cutting value for both local communities and national growth.
With a legacy of unity in diversity and a tapestry of stories woven over millennia, India can transform its vast cultural wealth into creative power, with the right vision, planning, and execution. Now is the moment to Create in India—a time for young creators to showcase their craft, and for governments and investors to invest in people as much as in technology.
The Indian Slice of the Orange Economy
As India’s GDP is projected to grow 6.5% in FY25, the fastest among major economies, its creative industries are poised to benefit from rising income and higher discretionary spending. Besides, greater disposable income due to interest rate cuts and tax reliefs has induced a festive push in demand. According to the FICCI-EY report,2 the Media and Entertainment (M&E) sector is growing 7% annually, and is estimated to reach ₹3.07 trillion by 2027. Moreover, digital media has overtaken television as the largest segment, with online gaming, OTT, and social media now accounting for 41% of revenues. The adoption of AI tools has further enhanced productivity in animation, script generation, and storyboarding, increasing efficiency across creative workflows.
Findings by BCG3 reveal that India produces nearly 200,000 hours of content annually, with 2.5 million creators influencing over 30% of consumer spending, particularly among Gen Zs in lifestyle categories. By 2030, this sector could unlock $100 billion in value, as short-form videos, digital art, and branded collaborations redefine entertainment and value creation. Indian content is also popular in Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, which are witnessing a surge in digital adoption. From 2009 to 2023, India’s audio-visual and related services exports grew over fivefold, with an average growth rate of 13.4%.2
Even as consumption grows rapidly beyond metros to smaller cities and abroad, only 8–10% of creators are able to monetise their work effectively.3 Key barriers in M&E include a shortage of quality writers and original content, limited low-cost theatres, and inadequate government incentives for animation, gaming, and VFX. Data on the credit needs of small and medium players is scarce, making access to finance an additional challenge. Foreign direct investment remains low, held back by fragmented regulations on digital data protection and storage. Being largely discretionary, the sector is also sensitive to economic slowdowns and global uncertainties.2
Meanwhile, the rise of digital platforms, e-commerce, and tourism has created new opportunities for India’s handicrafts sector, revitalising rural livelihoods. Valued at $ 4.5 billion in 2024, the market size is estimated to double by 2033, owing to rising global demand for sustainable, eco-friendly handmade products and their growing presence in domestic lifestyle stores, hypermarkets, and convenience chains. Government schemes and e-marketplaces further empower rural artisans, connecting them to urban and global consumers, in addition to enhancing their skills and providing financial incentives. Despite such initiatives, unorganised supply chains, lack of access to modern tools, limited scalability, and unsteady incomes discourage younger generations from pursuing traditional crafts.
The Social Fabric of Creative Livelihoods
Creative industries bridge entrepreneurship with livelihood diversification, reducing reliance on traditional sectors like agriculture and manufacturing for employment generation. Over 45% of India’s workforce depends on agriculture, which is highly seasonal in nature, while manufacturing employs barely 11%. The orange economy, being labour- and skill-intensive and deeply rooted in local economies and cultures, presents a promising path for large-scale rural employment, especially for women.1 Beyond economics, they foster social integration and global demand for cultural products, strengthening independent arts—music, literature, and film, and transforming local industries surrounding festivals and handicrafts into structured, revenue-generating ventures. A striking example is the latest Mahakumbh Mela that generated nearly ₹2.5 lakh crore in revenue and created around 80,000 jobs. The event immensely benefited local, small businesses such as street vendors and artisans, earning about ₹45,000 crore, alongside major industries including hospitality, food, transport, logistics, religious articles, and telecom. With over 400 million visitors, including 1.5 million foreign tourists, and about 5 million social media mentions, the event exemplified the immense economic potential of cultural events.
Furthermore, the orange economy demonstrates a strong potential to advance Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by combining economic growth with social inclusion and sustainability. It supports SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth) through flexible creative jobs that accommodate diverse lifestyles, SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) by preserving cultural heritage amid urbanisation, SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions) by fostering dialogue and understanding across cultures, and SDG 5 (Gender Equality) by amplifying the marginalised voices, including women’s.1
From Engineers to Storytellers: Learning from Hallyu
India can draw ideas from other countries that have turned culture into a global brand. South Korea, once renowned for semiconductors, cars, and consumer electronics, reshaped its global identity with the Hallyu wave. In 2023, Hallyu-related exports stood at around $14 billion, with BTS alone contributing about $3.7 billion annually through exports, consumption, and tourism. This success is no accident— since the 1990s, the Korean government has been treating culture as a strategic industry with dedicated institutions, securing 1% of the national budget for cultural promotions, and five-year plans under the Ministry of Culture. Evolving with global trends, the Hallyu wave, extending from Korean entertainment to cuisine, has converted cultural curiosity into a multibillion-dollar phenomenon, with digital platforms further amplifying its outreach.4
Turning Vision into Action
The WAVES 2025 pioneered India’s emergence as a global hub for the creative economy, bringing together participants from over 90 countries, thousands of delegates and creators, and hundreds of companies and startups. Ahead of the summit, the government announced a $1 billion fund to invigorate our talent pool and turn India into a net exporter of content. Central to this push is ‘WaveX’, a Ministry of Information & Broadcasting startup accelerator establishing seven incubation centers nationwide, alongside the flagship at Mumbai’s Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT). Equipped with world-class facilities, mentorship, funding, and global exposure, it aims to nurture the next generation of innovators in animation, gaming, XR, and media, while offering hands-on experience with institutions such as Doordarshan, All India Radio, FTII, and SRFTI. Another crucial initiative is Waves Bazaar, a platform for Indian creators to exhibit their work, pitch projects, and forge international collaborations. Such institutional backing, coupled with India’s youthful demographic and digital infrastructure, can accelerate progress towards Viksit Bharat.
Channelling the Craftsmen’s Creative Churn
Through targeted initiatives, the government is leveraging its diverse cultural assets into sustainable livelihoods and national pride. The PM Vishwakarma Yojana promotes 18 traditional trades providing training, toolkits, and collateral-free loans. Similarly, the USTTAD scheme helps preserve ancestral crafts of minority communities, training school dropouts and artisans to upgrade their skills and improve employability. Platforms like Hunar Haat offer vibrant marketplaces for artisans and culinary experts to showcase and sell indigenous products, while digital portals such as E-Haat and the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) connect local producers directly with national and international buyers. Since 2016, 33 Hunar Haats have benefitted nearly 7 lakh artisans across the country. These initiatives embody the spirit of ‘Swadeshi se Swavalamban’ under Atmanirbhar Bharat.
Under ‘Mera Gaon Meri Dharohar (MGMD) scheme, grants are given to organisations that preserve the life, history, and culture of Indian villages and make them accessible to both virtual and in-person visitors. Likewise, the ‘One District One Product’ project identifies and brands one key craft or specialty from each Indian district, and the National Handloom Development Programme empowers weavers, primarily women, by offering financial support for raw materials, looms, design innovation, and marketing. Together, these measures not only revive India’s traditions but also reimagine them as engines of creativity, inclusion, and economic growth.
Connecting the Dots—Credit, Scale, and IP
In a nutshell, India’s Orange Economy is vast, and its very diversity makes assessing the resource needs of its industries a complex task. Nevertheless, three challenges consistently emerge across sectors: access to credit, scalability, and intellectual property rights. Collateral-free loans under PM Vishwakarma for self-employment fall short due to structural barriers. Since its launch, banks sanctioned only 28% of applications, often rejecting artisans with weak or non-existent credit histories and first-time entrants without formal set-ups. Further, low digital and financial literacy sidelines those who need support the most, exposing the gap between policy intent and ground reality.
Many artisans still view handicrafts as a supplement to farm income or seasonal tourism earnings rather than as a sustainable business. Scaling up production is a major hurdle, compounded by irregular access to raw materials, uneven regional infrastructure, high processing costs, and limited knowledge of e-commerce platforms. In the entertainment sector, apart from a few established firms, most creators are micro-entrepreneurs without formal registration. Existing MSME norms, designed for manufacturing and services, barely align with the income patterns of creative workers, reinforcing informalisation and restricting access to formal credit.
Recently, the Kolhapuri chappal controversy exposed fault lines in India’s intellectual property regime. Despite the GI tag, the Italian luxury brand Prada replicated the design without crediting the original artisans. Unfortunately, the current IPR laws give the government little recourse to contest such cultural appropriation. Like the Ministry of AYUSH’s digital library of traditional knowledge available in multiple foreign languages, similar efforts are needed to document and protect India’s traditional arts and crafts. The advent of generative AI further complicates matters, as vast amounts of creative content risk being mined, reproduced, and monetised without compensating original creators. India’s weak IPR safeguards alert policymakers to issues of authenticity, ownership, and respect for creators in the new digital era.
Create in India: From Ideas to Impact
Apart from Bollywood’s global spotlight, India lacks an integrated cultural identity. Our art, folk forms, craft, literature, gaming, and graphics remain disjointed silos across ministries such as Culture, Textiles, MSME, Tourism, and Information & Broadcasting. Without reliable integrated data on income generation, credit gaps, or policy impact, interventions risk treating symptoms rather than building lasting systems. It is high time creators are equipped with the tools to thrive — IP rights backed by government registries, digital skills, and inclusive financing models like royalty-based lending and small credit guarantees.
India already has strong fundamentals: a rich cultural heritage, a huge pool of creative talent, growing domestic and international markets, and a budding policy push. For long, we have exported engineers. Now is the time to export stories, aesthetics, and culture, reshaping our global image through Create in India. With data-backed planning and regulation, technology integration, and inclusive resource allocation, India can revive livelihoods, empower women, preserve heritage, and position itself as a global leader in the orange economy.
Shradha
