Budget 2026 puts ‘orange economy’ in the spotlight with jobs and creative push

NEW DELHI: India is courting its creators. In Budget 2026, FM Nirmala Sitharaman pitched the “orange economy” as a new engine of jobs and services-led growth, shifting attention to animation, visual effects, gaming and comics, or AVCG.

The bet is on ideas, not just industry. Sitharaman flagged the sector as a high-potential employer, with demand for creative talent projected to surge in the coming years. To widen the pipeline, the government will back AVCG content-creator labs in 15,000 secondary schools and 500 colleges, with the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies in Mumbai playing a supporting role.

The logic mirrors the Economic Survey’s argument that creativity-led sectors spanning culture, media and entertainment can power urban growth, tourism and intellectual-property creation. These industries trade less in physical goods and more in imagination, design and storytelling.

The Survey also points to the concert economy as an underdeveloped prize. Live entertainment, it notes, spins off demand for hospitality, transport, logistics and security. Global evidence is telling. Live music in the United States has generated over $130 billion in economic output and supported more than 900,000 jobs. In the UK, music tourism has contributed billions of pounds and measurable slices of GDP. Across countries, creative industries account for between 0.5 per cent and over 7 per cent of GDP.

India’s constraint is not demand but friction. Large venues are scarce, permissions are tangled and foreign artists face payment and visa hurdles. Event organisers often juggle 10 to 15 clearances. A proposed single-window system for live-entertainment approvals aims to cut that red tape.

The broader message is strategic. The orange economy is being framed not as niche entertainment but as part of an urban-growth and tourism playbook. If policy clarity and skills keep pace, culture could become commerce at scale. India has long exported software and cinema; now it wants to export imagination. The stage is set, the spotlight is on and the next blockbuster may be economic.