WAVES Summit 2025: India Sets Global Vision In AVGC-XR; IICT Launches Strategic Collaborations

WAVES Summit 2025: In a major leap towards empowering India's AVGC-XR ecosystem, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, in collaboration with FICCI and CII, has unveiled the Indian Institute of Creative Technology (IICT)-a national centre of excellence dedicated exclusively to the AVGC-XR sector.

The announcement that was made at the inaugural of Waves summit, was formalised today by the hon'ble Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, during the ongoing WAVES Summit in Mumbai.

The agreements were exchanged in presence of Minister of state L Murugan and Secretary, Information and Broadcasting Shri Sanjay Jaju.

It was announced that the initiative is designed to bridge the growing demand for world-class infrastructure and talent in India's booming digital content and immersive technology sectors.

The minister informed that IICT will follow the same template as the IITs and IIMs in India to transform itself into a massive world-class education and training hub for students who aspire to be professionals in the AVGC-XR sector.

"We have started an initiative which is completely novel in the world of film and entertainment. This (initiative) follows the vision of our prime minister that India can take the global lead in the world in the media and entertainment sector," said Vaishnaw.

The minister heartily thanked the industry partners who have expressed their willingness to collaborate, as he announced that leading global companies have agreed to partner with IICT to provide support in curriculum development, internships, scholarships, startup funding, and job placements.

"I thank all the industry partners and their top management with whom I have spoken to, for expressing their willingness to partner with us for this initiative. They will help us build this institution and help us sustain a long-term growth. I hope the IICT grows into a large educational infrastucture 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," the minister added.

Some companies who have extended their hands for a long-term collaborations are JioStar, Adobe, Google & YouTube, Meta, Wacom, Microsoft and Nvidia.

The industry leaders who were present in this ceremony included Richard Kerris, (VP & GM, Media & Entertainment, Nvidia), Sanjog Gupta (CEO, Sports & Live Experiences, Jio Star), Mala Sharma (VP & GM - Education, Adobe), Preeti Lobana (Country Head & VP, Google India), Rajiv Malik (Senior Director, WACOM), Sandeep Bandibekar (Head of Sales, State govt. & Healthcare), Sandeep Bandivdekar (Director, Mainstream Services Partners, Microsoft) and Sunil Abraham (Director, Public policy, Meta).

Board members and governing council members of IICT who were present today were Ashish Kulkarni, Biren Ghosh, Manvendra Shukul, Munjal Shroff, Chaitanya Chinchlikar, and Subhash Sapru. Executive Team of IICT is Dr Vishwas Deoskar IICT CEO and Ninad Raikar IICT COO. and Shweta Verma Lead Marketing IICT