Ministry of Information & Broadcasting press release · 18 March 2026 · pibtracker filter

Government Establishes Strategic Partnerships to Strengthen IICT and the AVGC-XR Ecosystem

PRID2241913 MinistryMinistry of Information & Broadcasting Released18 March 2026 Reading9 min

Posted On: 18 MAR 2026 5:22PM by PIB Delhi WAVES Bazaar is the flagship global B2B marketplace and engagement platform of the Government, conceived to promote India’s Media & Entertainment (M&E) sector across films, animation, VFX, gaming, AVGC-XR, immersive media, music, and digital content. Envisioned as a “Create in India, Create for the World” initiative, WAVES Bazaar enables structured business discovery, market access, investment facilitation, and international collaboration for Indian creators, studios, startups, and institutions. The Government has established strategic partnerships with several global technology companies to support the National Centre of Excellence (NCoE) for Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics and Extended Reality (AVGC-XR) - the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT). The collaborations aim to support the IICT through curriculum development, skill development programmes, internships, research and development support, startup incubation, scholarships and industry mentorship, thereby strengthening the AVGC-XR ecosystem in the country. IFFI aims to be inclusive in terms of participation of countries, genres of films, styles of production, thematic concerns and audience appeal. Over the last 3 years, the number of countries from which films have been submitted to the festival has increased from 106 in 2023 to 127 in 2025. In the final line-up of films, international participation has increased from 79 countries in 2023 to 84 countries in 2025. Genres, styles and themes also have registered an impressive rise in IFFI's film bouquet. For wider inclusivity, the delegate fee is kept at low threshold of Rs. 1000/- for the entire length of the festival been held at 4 venues across Goa i.e. Panjim, Porvorim, Madgaon and Ponda. All screening venues of the festival have been made accessible for Divyangjan. In 56th IFFI, Indian Panorama section-19 films had Closed Captions and 24 films had Audio Descriptions. The Creative Minds of Tomorrow (CMOT) is an initiative launched in 2021 during the International Film Festival of India to identify, recognize, and nurture young creative talent in the field of filmmaking. The fifth edition of CMOT in 2025 brought together around 125 emerging creators across 13 film crafts. Since its inception in 2021, CMOT has grown steadily, with alumni screening at major global festivals, earning national recognition, and contributing significantly to India’s creative economy. This Information was submitted by the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Dr. L. Murugan in the Lok Sabha today in response of questions asked by Shri Manish Jaiswal, Dr. Hemang Joshi, Shri Manoj Tiwari, Shri Ravindra Shukla Alias Ravi Kishan. ***** Mahesh Kumar (Release ID: 2241913) Visitor Counter : 386 Read this release in: Urdu , हिन्दी , Bengali , Punjabi , Telugu , Malayalam Ministry of Information & Broadcasting Government Establishes Strategic Partnerships to Strengthen IICT and the AVGC-XR Ecosystem Posted On: 18 MAR 2026 5:22PM by PIB Delhi WAVES Bazaar is the flagship global B2B marketplace and engagement platform of the Government, conceived to promote India’s Media & Entertainment (M&E) sector across films, animation, VFX, gaming, AVGC-XR, immersive media, music, and digital content. Envisioned as a “Create in India, Create for the World” initiative, WAVES Bazaar enables structured business discovery, market access, investment facilitation, and international collaboration for Indian creators, studios, startups, and institutions. The Government has established strategic partnerships with several global technology companies to support the National Centre of Excellence (NCoE) for Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics and Extended Reality (AVGC-XR) - the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT). The collaborations aim to support the IICT through curriculum development, skill development programmes, internships, research and development support, startup incubation, scholarships and industry mentorship, thereby strengthening the AVGC-XR ecosystem in the country. IFFI aims to be inclusive in terms of participation of countries, genres of films, styles of production, thematic concerns and audience appeal. Over the last 3 years, the number of countries from which films have been submitted to the festival has increased from 106 in 2023 to 127 in 2025. In the final line-up of films, international participation has increased from 79 countries in 2023 to 84 countries in 2025. Genres, styles and themes also have registered an impressive rise in IFFI's film bouquet. For wider inclusivity, the delegate fee is kept at low threshold of Rs. 1000/- for the entire length of the festival been held at 4 venues across Goa i.e. Panjim, Porvorim, Madgaon and Ponda. All screening venues of the festival have been made accessible for Divyangjan. In 56th IFFI, Indian Panorama section-19 films had Closed Captions and 24 films had Audio Descriptions. The Creative Minds of Tomorrow (CMOT) is an initiative launched in 2021 during the International Film Festival of India to identify, recognize, and nurture young creative talent in the field of filmmaking. The fifth edition of CMOT in 2025 brought together around 125 emerging creators across 13 film crafts. Since its inception in 2021, CMOT has grown steadily, with alumni screening at major global festivals, earning national recognition, and contributing significantly to India’s creative economy. This Information was submitted by the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Dr. L. Murugan in the Lok Sabha today in response of questions asked by Shri Manish Jaiswal, Dr. Hemang Joshi, Shri Manoj Tiwari, Shri Ravindra Shukla Alias Ravi Kishan. ***** Mahesh Kumar (Release ID: 2241913) WAVES Bazaar is the flagship global B2B marketplace and engagement platform of the Government, conceived to promote India’s Media & Entertainment (M&E) sector across films, animation, VFX, gaming, AVGC-XR, immersive media, music, and digital content. Envisioned as a “Create in India, Create for the World” initiative, WAVES Bazaar enables structured business discovery, market access, investment facilitation, and international collaboration for Indian creators, studios, startups, and institutions. The Government has established strategic partnerships with several global technology companies to support the National Centre of Excellence (NCoE) for Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics and Extended Reality (AVGC-XR) - the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT). The collaborations aim to support the IICT through curriculum development, skill development programmes, internships, research and development support, startup incubation, scholarships and industry mentorship, thereby strengthening the AVGC-XR ecosystem in the country. IFFI aims to be inclusive in terms of participation of countries, genres of films, styles of production, thematic concerns and audience appeal. Over the last 3 years, the number of countries from which films have been submitted to the festival has increased from 106 in 2023 to 127 in 2025. In the final line-up of films, international participation has increased from 79 countries in 2023 to 84 countries in 2025. Genres, styles and themes also have registered an impressive rise in IFFI's film bouquet. For wider inclusivity, the delegate fee is kept at low threshold of Rs. 1000/- for the entire length of the festival been held at 4 venues across Goa i.e. Panjim, Porvorim, Madgaon and Ponda. All screening venues of the festival have been made accessible for Divyangjan. In 56th IFFI, Indian Panorama section-19 films had Closed Captions and 24 films had Audio Descriptions. The Creative Minds of Tomorrow (CMOT) is an initiative launched in 2021 during the International Film Festival of India to identify, recognize, and nurture young creative talent in the field of filmmaking. The fifth edition of CMOT in 2025 brought together around 125 emerging creators across 13 film crafts. Since its inception in 2021, CMOT has grown steadily, with alumni screening at major global festivals, earning national recognition, and contributing significantly to India’s creative economy. This Information was submitted by the Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Dr. L. Murugan in the Lok Sabha today in response of questions asked by Shri Manish Jaiswal, Dr. Hemang Joshi, Shri Manoj Tiwari, Shri Ravindra Shukla Alias Ravi Kishan. ***** Mahesh Kumar " /> var mPlayer = document.getElementById("background_music"); var mPlayAction = document.getElementById("playbutton"); var isPlaying = false; function playAudio() { mPlayer.play(); isPlaying = true; document.getElementById('stopA').style.display = "block"; document.getElementById('playA').style.display = "none"; } function pauseAudio() { mPlayer.pause(); isPlaying = false; document.getElementById('playA').style.display = "block"; document.getElementById('stopA').style.display = "none"; } //function HandleAudio() { // if (isPlaying == true) { // //Playing already Pause it // pauseAudio(); // } else { // //Play the music // playAudio(); // } //} var synth = window.speechSynthesis; function CleanHtml(html) { html = html.replace(/ /gi, ''); return html; } function stripHtml(html) { let tmp = document.createElement("DIV"); tmp.innerHTML = CleanHtml(html); return tmp.textContent || tmp.innerText || ""; } $(document).ready(function () { //for responsive tables $("table").each(function () { if (!$(this).closest(".table-responsive").length) { $(this).wrap(" "); } }); var width = $(window).width(); if (width $(document).ready(function () { var width = $(window).width(); if (width @media print { .sticky-social, .sticky-social_mb, .pull-right, #printPDF { display: none !important; } } .f_vl { padding-right: 30px; font-size: 17px; cursor: pointer; } .log_oo { // width: 20%; display: flex; justify-content: space-between; } .log_oo img { width: 150px; /*width: 100%; height: auto;*/ } .sticky-social_mb { position: fixed; bottom: 0px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; width: 100%; } .social_mb { list-style: none; display: flex; width: 100%; margin-bottom: -8px; } .social_mb a { padding: 8px 0px; font-size: 30px; transition: all 0.8s ease-in-out; width: 20% !important; text-align: center; } .section1 { position: relative; padding: 10px 0px; width: 100%; } .sticky-social { position: fixed; top: 20px; left: 0px; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; } .social { list-style: none; } .social a li { padding: 8px 12px; font-size: 25px; transition: all 0.8s ease-in-out; } .social a li:hover { margin-right: -30px; box-shadow: 2px 5px 10px grey; } .social a li:hover .fa { margin-left: 20px; } .fb_b { /* background-color: rgb(59, 89, 152);*/ background-color: rgba(65,103,178,255); } .twitter_r { /* background-color: rgb(29, 161, 242);*/ background-color: #000000; } .whatsapp_r { /* background-color: rgb(77, 194, 71);*/ background-color: rgba(13,191,67,255); } .fa-envelope_r { /* background-color: rgb(219, 68, 55);*/ background-color: #e2123d; } .fa-linkedin_r { background-color: rgb(0, 119, 181); } @media only screen and (max-device-width: 767px) { p span img { max-width: 90% !important; height: auto !important; } p img { max-width: 90% !important; height: auto !important; } h2 { font-size: 20px !important; font-weight: 600 !important; } h3 { font-size: 18px !important; font-weight: 600 !important; } } /* === Film Roll Badge Styling(IFFI2025 countdown) === */ .film-roll-badge { position: absolute; top:82%; right: 20px; width: 230px; height: 70px; background: repeating-linear-gradient( to right, #9a2375 0px, #9a2375 18px, #6e2b8b 18px, #6e2b8b 36px ); border-top: 8px solid #9a2375; border-bottom: 8px solid #9a2375; border-radius: 8px; overflow: hidden; box-shadow: 0 4px 12px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4); animation: moveFilm 8s linear infinite; z-index: 10; } /* film sprocket holes */ .film-roll-badge::before, .film-roll-badge::after { content: ""; position: absolute; width: 100%; height: 10px; background: repeating-linear-gradient( to right, #9a2375 0px, #9a2375 10px, #fff 10px, #fff 20px ); left: 0; z-index: 2; } .film-roll-badge::before { top: -4px; } .film-roll-badge::after { bottom: -4px; } .film-roll-inner { position: relative; height: 100%; display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center; animation: flicker 2s infinite ease-in-out; } .countdown-text { font-size: 1.3rem; font-weight: 700; color: #fff; text-shadow: 0 0 6px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.4), 0 0 10px #000; white-space: nowrap; } /* === Animations === */ @keyframes moveFilm { 0% { background-position: 0 0; } 100% { background-position: 120px 0; } } @keyframes flicker { 0%, 100% { opacity: 1; } 50% { opacity: 0.9; } 25% { opacity: 0.95; } 75% { opacity: 0.85; } } /* === Responsive Adjustments === */ @media (max-width: 1500px) { .film-roll-badge { top: 68%; right: 18px; /* width: 220px; */ height: 65px; font-size: 0.85rem; } .press-section { margin-top: 35px; } } @media (max-width: 992px) { .film-roll-badge { top: 52%; right: 10px; width: 200px; height: 60px; } } @media (max-width: 768px) { .film-roll-badge { top: 56%; right: 10px; width: 124px; height: 55px; } .countdown-text { font-size: 0.9rem; } } @media (max-width: 576px) { .film-roll-badge { top: 59%; right: 5px; /* width: 160px; */ height: 50px; } .countdown-text { font-size: 0.85rem; } } const festivalStart = new Date("2025-11-20T00:00:00").getTime(); const festivalEnd = new Date("2025-11-28T23:59:59").getTime(); const countdownElement = document.getElementById("countdown"); const interval = setInterval(() => { const now = new Date().getTime(); // BEFORE FESTIVAL — show days + hours left if (now = festivalStart && now el.style.width = "350px"); clearInterval(interval); } }, 1000); //

Original PIB release
pib.gov.in · PRID 2241913

Open on PIB ↗

Government Establishes Strategic Partnerships to Strengthen IICT and the AVGC-XR Ecosystem

More from this day