Reinventing India’s creative economy in a digital era

COVID-19 has led to a sharp increase in the consumption of creative products and services. Improving demographics, better access to ICTs and dynamic shifts to new lifestyles, promise a progressive future for India’s creative economy.

BY SRIJATA DEB

Creative economy has become a significant transformative force that relies on creative resources with economic, cultural and social aspects that have the potential to facilitate economic growth. The idea of creative goods and services in developing economies draws attention to the significant creative assets and rich cultural resources that exist in these countries.

These have manifested in the production of advertising, architecture, arts and crafts, design, fashion, film, video, photography, music, performing arts, publishing, research & development, software, computer games, electronic publishing, and TV/radio, among others.

India has fared extensively well in the trade of these goods. The country stood as the 8th largest exporter of creative goods globally and third largest among developing countries. Indian creative exports grew from US$ 4.4 billion in 2003 to US$ 20.7 billion in 2019. Major exporting destinations for India with respect to such creative goods and services include United Arab Emirates, United States, China, Hong Kong, Singapore and major countries of Europe. Studies have indicated a positive trade balance of creative goods with jewelry, fashion accessories and arts & crafts leading exports. The best performing sectors were design, audio-visual and publishing.

Interventions in the telecommunications and multimedia industries, in addition to their convergence with technology, evidently have a significant impact on the demand and supply of creative goods and services. These technologies facilitate production, distribution and consumption of creative commodities. Furthermore, it has fostered new forms of artistic and creative expression.

Digitalization, thus, has brought about significant progress in the range of media, through which creative content is delivered to consumers, such as videoon-demand, music podcasting, streaming, computers and the

provision of television services via cable, satellite and the Internet. The persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic has further led to an exponential growth in creative digital content consumption and production.

However, the same digitisation has also revealed the sector’s vulnerability. In the COVID-era, the MSMEs in the sector have contracted by around 16% and the impact on the remaining freelance and gigworkforce has been disproportional and far adverse (FICCI, 2019). Individual professionals and artisans have faced hand-to-mouth existence surviving on food parcels and state governments micro-grants. Notably, India’s exports have dropped sharply by over 35% YoY in 2020 to reach US$ 13.4 billion.

The digital divide, coupled with poor access to stable internet connectivity and skills to utilize digital interventions in the country has been flagged as the major reason for the unprecedented downfall of such entrepreneurs and enterprises. The long-term growth of around 90% of the creative sector has been endangered owing to social distancing norms in both importing and exporting countries, according to the report.

Evidence from UNCTAD reports suggests flourishing exports of creative goods relying on various digital forms of production and consumption. However, industries with diversified and non-virtual creative elements have not been

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10 CREATIVE ECONOMY EXPORTS FROM INDIA

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2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Source: UN Comtrade, figures in US$ billion

ENTREPRENEURS MUST ADAPT & ACCESS NEW AUDIENCES THROUGH DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES.

performing optimally. It is imperative for entrepreneurs and producing organizations in niche areas of this sector to adapt and access new audiences by embracing digital.

Electronic commerce is the pathway to a bigger marketplace for several design products, showcase artisanal craft work and performances. These can help to rekindle India’s traditional skills and empower millions of microentrepreneurs and SMEs, especially considering the vast population of craftspersons in the country. However, many entrepreneurs and small industry owners of such creative and cultural products lack access to internet, financial resources, and the desired skillsets to fully utilise the digital platforms of the current era.

The remedy, in this case, can be in the form of dedicated digital skills programs and knowledge dissemination sessions to resolve the long-term systemic issues for upskilling entrepreneurs to adapt to new ways of producing, distributing, and selling; as well as collaborative efforts by the governments and institutions to facilitate digital inclusion in the industry.

Moreover, there is need for increased intra-regional and crossborder trade and taking steps towards building a contingency plan to reduce non-tariff barriers and increase digital infrastructure related cooperation, to facilitate and foster trade in niche creative products.

Therefore, increasing demographics, better access to ICTs and dynamic shifts to new lifestyles associated with creative products and services, promise a progressive future for this avenue.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new opportunities for creative industry, turning crafts, films and digital concerts as an outlet with many people flocking in. Now more than ever, a culture of digital inclusion must be created to foster diversity and empower the creative industry.