Barely a day after the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) unveiled the launch of an IIT-like national institute for the creative ecosystem—the Indian Institute of Creative Technology (IICT)—major tech giants like Adobe, Google, and Meta signed letters of intent (LoIs) with IICT at the inaugural edition of the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES) 2025.
On the third day of WAVES 2025, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw formalised and exchanged the agreements with representatives of the tech industry. Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting L. Murugan and MIB Secretary Sanjay Jaju were also present during the announcement.
Photo: PIB
“We have started an initiative which is completely novel in the world of film and entertainment,” explained Vaishnaw.
IICT (which will operate in the same format as IITs) is expected to bring professional expertise to India’s budding AVGC-XR (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, and Comics-Extended Reality) sector.
For this, the Centre has roped in major names in tech, including long-term collaborations with Adobe, Alphabet (which owns Google and YouTube), Meta (which owns WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram), Wacom, Microsoft, and NVIDIA.
Joining Vaishnaw at the ceremony were NVIDIA VP Richard Kerris, JioStar’s Sanjog Gupta, Adobe VP Mala Sharma, Google India Country Head Preeti Lobana, Wacom Senior Director Rajiv Malik, Sandeep Bandibekar (Head of Sales, State Government and Healthcare), Microsoft’s Mainstream Services Partners Director Sandeep Bandivdekar, Meta’s Public Policy Director Sunil Abraham, and major IICT stakeholders, among others.
Photo: PIB
Thanking the tech industry partners who extended partnerships to IICT, the Union Minister doubled down on India’s commitment to make IICT a major educational infrastructure for the AVGC-XR sector.
“We will be following the same template that we have created for the IITs and IIMs in our country, to make it into a world-class institution,” added Vaishnaw.
“These alliances are designed to boost education, R&D and innovation across animation, visual effects, gaming, comics, film, and extended reality,” the ministry stated.
