PERSPECTIVES
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
C
reative 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
16 | India Business & Trade • Apr-May, 2022
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
