Day 1 CreaTech Mission to India: Briefing on India

The CreaTech Mission to India 2022 (Feb 21-24), organised by the Department for International Trade and the Creative Industries Council’s CreaTech programme, kicked off with a briefing outlining the opportunities in the India market - and the help available to UK creative companies looking to do business in India. Below, we summarise the participants and key points from the session.

Our panellists
Janet Hull, Director of Marketing Strategy IPA and Industry Lead, CIC CreaTech
David Moody, Sector Specialist – Advertising, Marketing and Creative Technology, DIT UK
Sanu de Lima, Deputy Director, Trade – South Asia, DIT India
Jennifer Fagan, First Secretary, Trade and Investment – energy, infrastructure, clean growth, ODI and Nepal
Pragya Chaturvedi, Senior Intellectual Property Adviser, British High Commission, India
Meetali Kashyap, Senior Market Access Adviser, DIT India
Ashish Pherwani, Partner, Ernst & Young
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Case Studies:
Ian Baverstock, Operations Manager, Kwalee India
Zaigham Butt, CEO, Soul for Screen

Janet Hull
● India’s huge population, increasing prosperity, strong media and booming tech landscape offers great potential for UK CreaTech companies.
● There are 18 UK CreaTech businesses taking part in this trade mission. These include businesses applying technology solutions to film and TV, experiential advertising, games, fan engagement and eSports in both b2b and b2c environments. Read about them in the Mission brochure.
● The mission is part of the UK government's Commonwealth Games business programme, and will be followed by a trade mission from India to the UK later in  2022.

David Moody
● Exports are critically important to the UK economy, supporting 6.5 million jobs. The UK is the second largest exporter of services in the world.
● The Department for International Trade promotes exports through shaping policy, running campaigns such as  ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World’  and providing commercial support to companies ambitious to grow overseas. Read the Exporting Guide to India and find out about specific export support for the creative sector https://www.events.great.gov.uk/website/5944/home-58/
● DIT is actively looking for case studies of export success stories involving UK creative companies - if you have one, email the team (dit-creative@trade.gov.uk)

Sanu de Lima
● India is set to be the world’s third largest economy by 2050, currently has more than 250 million online shoppers and is the world's fourth largest TV advertising market.
● India’s rapidly expanding middle-class is driving demand for high-quality UK creativity - films, TV, games + more - enabled by the exponential growth of streaming & mobile internet.
● India’s government recently launched an Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, and Comics (AGVC) Task Force to build domestic capacity, connect with global partners and cater for demand at home and abroad.

Jennifer Fagan
● India was the fifth largest largest recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2020, with investment growing 25% year-on-year. The UK is the sixth largest foreign direct investor in India.
● India’s government is keen to encourage investment in the country’s creative sector and has put in place measures to make this easier. There are three types of investment available: foreign direct investment, foreign portfolio investment and venture capital investment. DIT in India can assist with all of these.  
● The DIT in India offers a range of support for UK companies looking to do business in India, including setting up meetings, providing detailed information on available incentives and advising on regulations, which can vary between India’s different states.

Pragya Chaturvedi
● India’s government has ambitions to turn India into an innovation hub. It is keen to develop a robust innovation ecosystem and recognises the importance of intellectual property in achieving that.
● The UK & India are working closely to strengthen India’s IP ecosystem and make it easier for UK companies to do business in India. The DIT India team can offer help with local IP issues.

Meetali Kashyap
● India aims to grow a $5 trillion economy and increase internet access to more than 6oo million people by 2025. If negotiations to agree a Free Trade Agreement between India and the UK are successful, it will be a massive opportunity for companies in both countries.
● In the meantime DIT India is working to reducing regulatory obstacles, facilitate greater market access and improve trade flows between UK and India.

‍Ashish Pherwani
● India’s 1.3 billion strong population translates into a huge audience numbers: 500 million watchers of YouTube,  360 million online gamers, 480 million online news consumers
● Cricket remains India’s most popular sport, while the nation’s most popular tournament is the Indian Premier League (IPL). Esports are still nascent but growing at a phenomenal rate. Viewership was 17 million in 2020, by 2025 it is projected to grow 500% to 85 million. The number of players, platforms, pool prizes and revenues are all expected to rise.
● TV is increasingly interactive, with play-along apps developed for shows such as Indian Idol and Kaun Banega Crorepati (the Hindi version of ‘Who Want’s To Be A Millionaire?’). Media is also becoming more fragmented, with the rise of content creators. The number of YouTubers in India with more than one million followers has climbed from 1,500 to 5,000 in the last year alone.

CreaTech Case Study: Kwalee‍

Kwalee is a games studio with headquarters in Leamington Spa, England. It specialises in ‘hyper-casual gaming’: easy-to-play mobile games, which are monetised via ads. User growth soared in lockdown, with India’s 600 million smartphone owners becoming the company’s largest market. As a result, the company decided to  set up an office in India. Rather than simply outsourcing work to India, the firm has set up a fully functional office in Bangalore, duplicating the structure of its Leamington Spa HQ.

Kwalee was attracted not only by the size of India’s mobile games market, but its huge reservoir of video games development talent.  Opening the office has been ‘unexpectedly easy’, the company says, thanks to factors such as increasing digitisation which has cut down on administrative paperwork. The company now has plans to expand its product offering to include casual games, as well as PC and console games.

CreaTech Case Study: Soul For Screen‍

Soul For Screen is a film company producing commercials and short films. . The company was founded in 2019 by University of the Arts London graduates, Zaigham Hameed Butt and Annie Radulescu. Recently, they’ve launched a VFX Studio to meet growing demand for post-production during the pandemic. The company has been working with DIT to develop the business internationally and connect with distributors, clients and talent.

Choose from all sessions at the CreaTech Mission.

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