15,000 content creator labs across India as animation-comics sector growing fast, says Sitharaman in Budget 2026

“The Indian design industry is expanding rapidly, and yet there is shortage of Indian designers,” she said, announcing a new National Institute of Design

Updated on: Feb 1, 2026, 12:01:10 IST

By Aarish Chhabra

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Content creators and even comic books found a mention as focus areas for the economy in Nirmala Sitharaman's Union Budget 2026 speech on Sunday.

“India's animation, visual effects, gaming and comics, AVCG, is a growing industry, projected to require 2 million professionals by 2030,” Sitharaman said. (PTI)

She said content creator labs will be opened in 15,000 secondary schools and 500 colleges across India with the support of Indian Institute of Creative Technologies, Mumbai.

Follow her speech live here

She also announced plans to set up another National Institute of Design.

“India's animation, visual effects, gaming and comics, AVCG, is a growing industry, projected to require 2 million professionals by 2030. I propose to support the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies, Mumbai, in setting up AVCG content creator labs in 15,000 secondary schools all over the country; and 500 in colleges,” Sitharaman said.

The details of how these will function were not immediately shared.

“The Indian design industry is expanding rapidly, and yet there is shortage of Indian designers,” she further noted. “I propose to establish a new National Institute of Design to boost design education and development,” she added.

This NID would be in the eastern region, she said, sharing no further details.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Aarish Chhabra
Aarish Chhabra is an Associate Editor with the Hindustan Times online team, writing news reports and explanatory articles, besides overseeing coverage for the website. His career spans nearly two decades across India's most respected newsrooms in print, digital, and broadcast. He has reported, written, and edited across formats — from breaking news and live election coverage, to analytical long-reads and cultural commentary — building a body of work that reflects both editorial rigour and a deep curiosity about the society he writes for. Aarish studied English literature, sociology and history, besides journalism, at Panjab University, Chandigarh, and started his career in that city, eventually moving to Delhi. He is also the author of ‘The Big Small Town: How Life Looks from Chandigarh’, a collection of critical essays originally serialised as a weekly column in the Hindustan Times, examining the culture and politics of a city that is far more than its famous architecture — and, in doing so, holding up a mirror to modern India. In stints at the BBC, The Indian Express, NDTV, and Jagran New Media, he worked across formats and languages; mainly English, also Hindi and Punjabi. He was part of the crack team for the BBC Explainer project replicated across the world by the broadcaster. At Jagran, he developed editorial guides and trained journalists on integrity and content quality. He has also worked at the intersection of journalism and education. At the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, he developed a website that simplified academic research in management. At Bennett University's Times School of Media in Noida, he taught students the craft of digital journalism: from newsgathering and writing, to social media strategy and video storytelling. Having moved from a small town to a bigger town to a mega city for education and work, his intellectual passions lie at the intersection of society, politics, and popular culture — a perspective that informs both his writing and his view of the world. When not working, he is constantly reading long-form journalism or watching brainrot content, sometimes both at the same time.Read More

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