The Ministry behind India's GDP numbers tells media leaders the creative economy must be measured before it can be championed.
India's creative economy will get the policy support it deserves only when it is properly counted, Dr. Saurabh Garg, secretary of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, told the 13th CII Big Picture Summit on Thursday, setting out how official statistics are being rebuilt to capture creators, platforms and IP.
Speaking virtually, Garg said the prime minister's identification of soft power as the seventh pillar of the Viksit Bharat vision in his Independence Day address had made measuring creative activity a national priority.
"Creativity is fast emerging as a real source of economic value," he said. "A robust measurement framework will tell us the scale and composition of creative work, where India has comparative strength and where potential remains untapped."
Garg is the first statistics secretary to address a media and entertainment summit, bringing the ministry behind India's GDP and employment data into a conversation usually led by studios.
India's creative economy is valued at $30 billion and employs nearly 8% of the workforce, while creative services exports reached $11 billion in 2024 and are growing about 20% a year, according to NITI Aayog. The media and entertainment sector was worth about 2.5 trillion rupees in 2024, with digital media accounting for a third of revenue. Gaming stands at about 232 billion rupees, animation and visual effects at 103 billion rupees and live entertainment above 100 billion rupees. The sector supports more than 10 million livelihoods.
Garg outlined four steps to capture this activity. The revised National Industrial Classification includes influencers on digital and social media, video game publishing with in-app purchases, OTT streaming services and content-sharing platforms. The new Index of Services Production, with a 2024-25 base year, provides monthly indicators for 19 service sub-sectors, including broadcasting and entertainment. The Periodic Labour Force Survey began collecting platform worker data in January 2026 on an experimental basis. A framework to measure the knowledge economy, including traditional Indian knowledge systems, is in development.
The next frontier is intellectual property, he said. "The opportunity is moving from content production to IP ownership," Garg said. "If India is to shift from servicing global studios to licensing Indian IP, our statistics must track IP creation, ownership, licensing and exports."
Garg welcomed Budget 2026-27 support for AVGC creator labs in 15,000 schools and 500 colleges, noting the sector needs nearly 2 million professionals by 2030.