India Hosts the WAVES 2025; Over 90 Countries Participate in the Pioneering Initiative of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting

WAVES

In 2025, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting carried out many important initiatives to support India's media and entertainment sector. The biggest among them was WAVES 2025, the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit.

Prime Minister Modi described WAVES not just as an event, but as a "wave of culture, creativity and universal connectivity," and encouraged creators worldwide to "dream big and tell your story." PM also emphasized India's vision of "Create in India, Create for the World," inviting global investors and youth to engage with India's expansive creative ecosystem.

Waves 2025witnessed participation from over 90 countries, with more than 10,000 delegates, 1,000 creators, over 300 companies, over 350 startups, and an overall footfall of approximately 1 lakh attendees, spanning diverse sectors including broadcasting, infotainment, AVGC-XR, films, and digital media.

WAVES platform is being continued through its three futuristic verticals:

1) CreatoSphere & Create in India Challenges (CIC)

CreatoSphere is an immersive hub of innovation that places creators at the centre, transforming ideas into experiences across film, VFX, VR, animation, gaming, comics, music, broadcasting, and digital media. It brings together leading creative minds from India and abroad to foster dialogue, partnerships, innovation, and global showcasing of talent.

CICSeason- I emerge as "India's largest creative talent movement" and has achieved unprecedented global reach. Season I featured 33 categories, attracted over 1 lakh entries from across India and more than 60 countries, and showcased over 750 finalists across eight creative zones at WAVES, establishing India's largest creator-led challenge platform.

A defining moment of the season was the visit of the Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, who interacted directly with young creators, experienced winning innovations, and highlighted India's potential as a global content hub. The culmination of the season also saw over 150 creators being recognised by the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Hon'ble Shri Ashwini Vaishnav, at WAVES Creator Awards, underscoring the government's focus on nurturing India's creative economy.

CIC winners have recently represented India across Melbourne, Osaka, Toronto, Tokyo and Madrid, performing and exhibiting at major international cultural platforms. Music winners performed at Melbourne and TIFF, Toronto. Gaming and animation finalists exhibited at Tokyo Game show. Film and VFX creators represented India at Iberseries, Madrid. Several other winners went on to secure collaborations, showcase their work at major national and international forums, and achieve major recognition.

2) WaveX

WaveXaims to support and engage over 200 Startups as part of its initiative to strengthen the innovation and startup ecosystem.

It enabled more than 30 startups to pitch to global industry leaders such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Lumikai, while nearly 100 startups showcased solutions through exhibition booths. A key milestone was the selection of VYGR News and VIVA Technologies (both supported by WaveX) for pitching on Shark Tank India, underscoring national recognition and credibility.

WaveX successfully conceptualised and implemented the KalaaSetu and BhashaSetu Challenges to promote innovation at the intersection of technology, culture, and linguistic diversity. KalaaSetu focused on developing scalable AI-driven text-to-video generation solutions, while BhashaSetu encouraged the creation of real-time language translation tools. The initiatives witnessed participation from over 100 startups across the country and culminated in the selection of 10 startups, which were provided the opportunity to collaborate with government media units.

WaveX facilitated participation at major platforms including India Joy, IGDC, INFOCOM, IFFI/ Waves Film Bazaar (Goa), and the Big Picture Summit, driving investor interest and advanced discussions on partnerships, publishing, and commercialization. It has established 09 incubation centres at premier institutions like FTII Pune, SRFTI Kolkata, IICT Mumbai, and multiple IIMC campuses, ensuring pan-India reach. Currently, 34 startups are incubated (physical and hybrid), with over 100 applications under evaluation, strengthened by partnerships like an MoU with T-Hub.

3)WAVES BAZAAR

WAVES Bazaaris the Global e-Marketplace for Films, Game Developers, Animation & VFX Services, XR, VR & AR Services, Radio & Podcast, Comics & E-Books, Web-Series, Music.Designed as a "craft-to-commerce" initiative, it connects Indian creators and institutions with global & domestic markets through curated festival/event participation, B2B meetings, co-productions, investments, and collaborations, in coordination with industry stakeholders.

Global & Domestic Outreach (August-December 2025)

Between August and November 2025, WAVES Bazaar undertook an extensive outreach programme covering 12 major international events across four continents and 4 key domestic industry events. These engagements resulted in unprecedented scale and measurable impact:

• Approx. Rs. 4,334 crores in potential business and investment discussions generated
• 10 MoUs / LoIs signed and 3 MoUs / LoIs proposed
• Over 9000 structured B2B meetings facilitated
• Launch of the Indo-Japan Creative Corridor, India-Korea AVGC Collaboration Framework and the Indo-Australia Creative Collaboration.

Key international engagements included Melbourne Film Festival, Gamescom, Venice International Film Festival, Osaka World Expo, Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF 50), Busan International Film Festival, Tokyo Game Show, Iberseries, MIPCOM, Red Sea Film Festival, Focus London and Asia TV Forum Market, Singapore.

Key domestic engagements - IFFI/Waves Film Bazaar (Goa), India Joy (Hyderabad), IGDC (Chennai), CII- Big Picture.

Indian Institute of Creative Technology (IICT)

Government has established a National Centre of Excellence (NCoE) for the Animation, Visual Effects (VFX), Gaming, Comics and Extended Reality (AVGC-XR) with a one-time budgetary support of ₹391.15 crore on 19 September 2024 in Mumbai, later known as 'Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT)', follows a public-private partnership model, with FICCI and CII as industry partners. Temporary campus started functioning at NFDC campus in Mumbai.

The first phase of operations was inaugurated on 18 July 2025 at the IICT-NFDC Mumbai campus, spanning four fully functional floors (4th to 7th) with state-of-the-art classrooms and a dedicated startup incubation centre nurturing eight innovative startups. A high-end theatre facility has also been completed for professional-grade screening, sound design, and post-production, reflecting global industry standards. The vision extends to a permanent 10-acre campus at Film City, Goregaon, featuring a state-of-the-art Immersive Studio for hands-on AR/VR/XR training, embedding students directly within the heart of India's entertainment industry.

Key developments include

1. Strategic partnerships established with leading global technology and media companies such as Google, Meta, NVIDIA, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, and WPP, through multiple MoUs.
2. A total of 18 courses has been published on the institute's website (https://www.iict.org) and more than 100 students have been enrolled across programs. A total of 8 start-ups is currently being incubated at IICT.

India's Live Event Industry

Aligned with the Hon'ble Prime Minister's vision of positioning the concert economy as a national growth driver, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has set up a Live Events Development Cell (LEDC). The Cell comprises representatives from concerned Central Ministries, State Governments, industry bodies and key stakeholders, and aims to facilitate coordinated and structured growth of the sector.

Key Focus Areas

• Single-Window Clearance System being developed on India Cine Hub (ICH) for permissions (fire, traffic, municipal, etc.) to ensure faster approvals and investor-friendly processes
• Model SOPs for States and removal of redundant permissions

Government Actions to Curb Digital Piracy

Government remains conscious of the adverse impact of piracy on the creative economy including the film and entertainment industry. In this regard, government has adopted a multi-pronged approach through legislation, strict enforcement, and awareness efforts to address the issue of piracy.

There is an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) with members from key Ministries including Home Affairs, MeitY, DPIIT, and DoT has been constituted to strengthen anti-piracy strategies and develop coordinated action plans.

Achievements of Doordarshan and Community Radio

Doordarshan received the ECI Media Award (TV) for voter awareness and education during the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, presented by the Hon'ble President of India on National Voters' Day, January 25, 2025.

In 2025, Community Radio continued to expand as an important tool for local communication, education and development, with 22 new stations becoming operational, taking the total to 551 nationwide. National Community Radio Sammelan was organised during the WAVES Summit in Mumbai, along with 05 Awareness Workshops and 01 Regional Sammelan, focusing on Community Radio dark areas and capacity building of stations.

IFFI 2025 (56th edition) and WAVES / Film Bazaar

• The 56th International Film Festival of India (IFFI 2025) in Goa screened over 240 films from 81 countries, with numerous world, international and Asian premieres, underscoring its stature as a major international festival.
• IFFI 2025 foregrounded innovation and inclusivity, featuring India's first AI Film Festival and sessions on VFX, CGI and digital production, aligning the festival with emerging technologies and future-ready skills.
• A historic Grand Parade through Panaji turned IFFI into a street-level public celebration, strengthening its identity as a people-centric national cultural festival and reinforcing Goa's branding as a creative hub.
• WAVES Film Bazaar, held alongside IFFI 2025, witnessed unprecedented global participation, with over 2,500 delegates from more than 40 countries, making it one of the largest international gatherings at a South Asian film market. The event showcased 320 projects from over 15 countries, reflecting the strong and growing global interest in India's content ecosystem.

CBFC Advancing Digital, Multilingual and Gender-balanced Certification

• CBFC simplified the online certification process on the e-Cinepramaan portal, enabling fully electronic processing and issuance of securely digitally signed film certificates downloadable by applicants.
• A new multilingual certification module was launched on e-Cinepramaan, allowing multiple language versions of a film to be applied for through a single application and resulting in a single unified multilingual certificate listing all approved languages.
• CBFC ensured 50% women's participation on every Examining and Revising Committee, strengthening gender representation in the certification process.

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MSZ/ Vivek Vishwash