Latest news with #WAVES-2025
New Indian Express
05-05-2025
- Business
- New Indian Express
Odisha CM pitches Google collaboration on digital governance, woos top investors at WAVES-2025 summit
BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi held a series of one-on-one meetings with prominent investors and industry leaders in Mumbai reinforcing his government's commitment to fast-tracked industrial growth and ease of doing business in the state. During his visit to the city to attend the WAVES-2025 summit, the chief minister held an investors' meet where he held discussions with senior representatives of Google Inc and Canarys Automation - for digital governance collaboration in areas such as predictive disaster monitoring, AI-based administration, data de-duplication in public service delivery and advanced data analytics. Majhi also held separate meetings with the CEO & MD of TATA Steel TV Narendran and discussed the latter's expansion plans in Odisha in the context of the state's target to produce over 130 million tonne of steel by 2030. His other engagement was with Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry, chairman of Shapoorji Pallonji & Company, to explore synergies and future collaboration opportunities in the state. He also had a meeting with CMD of Waaree Group, Hitesh Doshi and discussed the progress of the company's ongoing projects in Odisha. They explored avenues to expand renewable energy initiatives in the state. The chief minister also met Anil Bhavarlal Jain, vice-chairman and CEO of Jain Irrigation, a leading company in drip/sprinkler irrigation, solar pumps, fruits and vegetable processing and tissue culture. They discussed opportunities for investment in Odisha's agriculture and irrigation equipment sector to boost sustainable farming and rural development. He met representatives of Chamber for Advancement of Small & Medium Enterprises (CASME), Maharashtra and invited them to explore opportunities for MSME collaboration in food processing and packaging, leveraging Odisha's raw material advantages. The CM invited these global investors to be part of Odisha's growth story, echoing the state's new rallying call 'Yahi Samay Hai, Sahi Samay Hai'. The state's participation at WAVES-2025 is expected to pave the way for greater engagement with film producers, technology leaders, sporting federations, tourism operators and creative entrepreneurs, said a senior officer who was part of the high-level delegation led by Majhi to Mumbai.
United News of India
03-05-2025
- Business
- United News of India
Establishment of Indian Institute of Creative Technology important for India: Union Minister Vaishnaw
Mumbai, May 3 (UNI) Taking a major leap towards empowering India's animation, visual effects, gaming, comics, and extended reality (AVGC-XR) ecosystem, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, in collaboration with FICCI and CII, has set up the Indian Institute of Creative Technology (IICT) – a National Centre of Excellence dedicated exclusively to the AVGC-XR sector. Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw formally flagged off this strategic collaboration on Saturday at the ongoing WAVES-2025 summit. He stressed on India's potential to become a global leader in the media and entertainment sector and said that IICT is on its way to becoming a premier institution in the field, just as IITs and IIMs have become benchmarks in technology and management education. The Union Minister said that IICT will follow the path of IITs and IIMs in India to establish itself as a major world-class education and training centre for students aspiring to become professionals in the AVGC-XR sector. "To launch a completely new initiative in the world of film and entertainment. This (initiative) is a vision of the Prime Minister to make India a global leader in the media and entertainment sector,' Vaishnaw said. He expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the industry partners who have shown their willingness to collaborate. He announced that leading global companies have agreed to partner with IICT to help in curriculum development, internships, scholarships, funding for startups and job placements. "I thank all the industry partners and their senior management for their willingness to partner with us for this initiative,' he said. He said that they will help build this institution and sustain its long-term growth. I hope that IICT (AVGC-XR) will become a major educational infrastructure for the region, added Vaishnav. Some of the companies that have extended a helping hand for long-term collaboration include Jio Star, Adobe, Google and YouTube, Meta, Wacom, Microsoft and NVIDIA. The entrepreneurs present at the event included Richard Keris, (Vice President and General Manager Media and Entertainment, Nvidia), Sanjog Gupta (CEO, Sports and Live Experiences, Jio Star), Mala Sharma (Vice President and General Manager – Education, Adobe), Preeti Lobana (Country Head and Vice President, Google India) among others.
Time of India
03-05-2025
- Sport
- Time of India
Odisha leads push to promote indigenous sports at WAVES
Bhubaneswar: In a significant push for indigenous sports , chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi outlined an ambitious vision for traditional Indian games at WAVES-2025, the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit, held in Mumbai on Saturday. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Speaking at a special session titled "Indigenous Sports – From India to the Global Stage", Majhi highlighted 's groundbreaking initiatives in sports development, particularly its distinction as the first Indian state to establish a dedicated High-Performance Centre for Kho Kho , in partnership with AMNS India. Drawing from his personal experiences in Keonjhar's tribal heartland, Majhi emphasised how traditional sports like kabaddi and kho-kho represent more than mere games, serving as vehicles for cultural expression and community building. "These were expressions of teamwork, resilience, and identity rooted in the soil of our communities," he said. The chief minister showcased the success of Odisha Juggernauts, the state's govt-owned franchise that clinched victory in the Ultimate Kho Kho League's inaugural season in 2022, demonstrating the potential of strategic investment in traditional sports. The session featured prominent speakers, including Pro Kabaddi League commissioner Anupam Goswami, international kabaddi star Fazel Atrachali, and indigenous sports advocate Sudhanshu Mittal. Discussions centred on elevating Indian traditional sports to international platforms, including the Olympics. Concluding his address with an Odia saying, "Khela re sanskruti achhi, sanskruti re asmita achhi" (in our games lies our culture, and in our culture lies our identity), Majhi reaffirmed Odisha's commitment to working with the Central Govt and global federations to promote indigenous sports worldwide. The summit marks another milestone in Odisha's ongoing efforts to integrate sports with youth empowerment, social development, and cultural preservation, setting a benchmark for other states to follow.
Hans India
03-05-2025
- Business
- Hans India
Keeping pace with dizzying speed of digital media
Digital media which has steadily climbed the ladder in the media & entertainment industry over the past two decades in India has now finally reached where it belongs- the top slot. In terms of ad revenues, this sector has seen the maximum growth and in calendar year 2024, the digital media's advertisement revenues reached a whopping figure of Rs 700 crore. Search and social media and e-commerce advertising, in that order, were the significant growth drivers. Mukesh Ambani, while speaking at the inaugural sesasion of the WAVES-2025, touched upon this aspect and was optimistic that the industry would reach a turnover of Rs 100 billion from the existing Rs 28 billion presently. Blending storytelling and digital technology has obviously unlocked a hitherto unexplored strategic and economic opportunity is his surmise. With content consumption hugely concentrated among the young audience, who make up more than two-thirds of the country's 1.4 billion population, it may be scary and exciting at the same time. Very quick to adapt to the blinding pace of technological changes, the youth of India is on par with many of his ilk in the world for using the medium as the message. Here is where the dangers lurk. In the public sphere, the pace at which fake news and information is peddled and pushed around is alarming, a trend which has been around for nearly five years now. Added to that is the rapidity with which it is consumed and re-circulated to keep its lifeline alive for longer time than expected. In the entertainment sphere, with piracy, explicit content on OTT platforms and a glorifying take on bloodshed and violence assuming a high percentage of feeds being watched vociferously, the flipside of digital technology is evident. While self-censorship is an ambiguous zone which has not seen any clear reform moves by the entertainment badshahs, the liberal attitude of the present Censor Board with regard to the themes being approved for universal exhibition too has enough reasons to worry the civil society activists. Commercial cinema has very efficiently piggy backed itself on multiple digital platforms and seems to be a great survivor, despite its very poor effort to initiate changes in the manner in which feature films are made and exhibited. Since it is the gravy train, which is a win-win for all the advertising and marketing professionals, cinema is constantly in demand and it is tagged along with yet another popular entertainment – watching cricket. One has seen how the recent IPL tournament has enabled the OTT channel to revive and publicise many of its offerings for a huge audience watching the willow game. The influx of AI tools has also added to the fascinating spread of this technology and the conservatives who have opposed the entry of the machine and metal into the world of men and mettle are being browbeaten into accepting it as it has infiltrated efficiently into various spheres of our lives. While the old media channels like print seem to staring at the end of the road, as its growth and revenue generation has retreated into a negative zone, the unbridled speed of the digital media is now a ride which the world seems enjoying, including the Indian working sector. One wishes that there is a course correction for the better soon, given that our society is still the same in many ways – hyper, opinionated and sharply polarised.
Hans India
02-05-2025
- Business
- Hans India
India's media & entertainment sector on track to $100 bn in 10 yrs: Ambani
Mumbai: India's versatile media and entertainment industry can grow more than three-fold to $100 billion in the next decade, creating millions of jobs and a ripple effect across sectors, billionaire Mukesh Ambani said on Thursday. Ambani, whose group controls Network18 - one of India's largest media conglomerates - as well as digital platforms, entertainment channels and content streaming platforms, said the fusion of storytelling and digital technologies has created a strategic and economic opportunity. 'India's media and entertainment industry is today valued at $28 billion. It can grow to over $100 billion in the next decade. This growth will drive entrepreneurship, generate millions of jobs, and create a ripple effect across sectors,' he said, while speaking at the inaugural session of the WAVES-2025 conference here.
