Education
Fathers, daughters and frames that fund girls’ education
MUMBAI: For two weeks in late November and early December, Mumbai saw an unusual kind of photoshoot rush. Fathers and daughters stepped in front of the camera for keepsake portraits, but walked away knowing their smiles would travel far beyond the photo frame.
The occasion was Project Nanhi Kali’s annual Proud Fathers For Daughters campaign, founded by Anand Mahindra and photographer Atul Kasbekar. The idea is refreshingly simple. Families sign up for professional shoots with leading photographers, and the fees go directly towards educating underprivileged girls across India. A family memory, in this case, doubles up as a quiet act of social change.
What gives the campaign its emotional pull is the relationship it celebrates. By positioning fathers as “Her First Coach”, the initiative taps into pride, encouragement and mentorship, while naturally extending the conversation to girls’ education and empowerment. Over two days, registered families responded in large numbers, creating moments that were both personal and purposeful.
The funds raised support far more than school enrolment. They help provide learning resources, physical education and life-skills training, offering girls the tools to imagine and build different futures. Project Nanhi Kali’s long-standing mission to break cycles of poverty through education finds strong momentum in this model.
At its heart, Proud Fathers For Daughters succeeds because it avoids grand gestures. Families receive something meaningful, a professionally captured moment in time, while contributing to something far larger. It is not charity wrapped in obligation, but participation wrapped in purpose, proving that sometimes the simplest ideas leave the strongest impressions.
Education
Govt to set up creator labs in 15,000 schools to boost AVGC sector
Budget boost and WAVES initiatives aim to scale India’s creator economy
NEW DELHI: The government is doubling down on India’s so-called orange economy, rolling out an ambitious plan to expand content creation infrastructure and skill development across the country.
At the heart of the push is a proposal to set up AVGC Content Creator Labs in 15,000 secondary schools and 500 colleges, backed by an allocation of Rs 250 crore in the Union Budget 2026-27. The move is aimed at nurturing talent early and building a pipeline for the fast-growing animation, visual effects, gaming and comics sector.
The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies has been designated as the nodal agency to steer this rollout. Operating from the campus of National Film Development Corporation in Mumbai, the institute has already launched 18 courses, with over 130 students enrolled and a trainer network beginning to take shape.
The broader ecosystem push is rooted in recommendations by the AVGC Promotion Task Force, which estimates that the sector could require around two million skilled professionals by 2030. The government is now working to align training, infrastructure and policy to meet that demand.
Flagship platforms such as WAVES 2025 are playing a central role in this strategy. The summit brought together creators, investors and global industry leaders, while initiatives like the WaveX Startup Accelerator Programme are helping startups scale through mentorship, funding access and international exposure.
The Create in India Challenge has also emerged as a key talent pipeline. Its first edition saw 33 challenges and participation from over one lakh creators, including many from smaller cities, signalling a democratisation of content creation across India.
Sharing details in Parliament, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting minister of state L Murugan outlined the government’s multi-pronged approach in response to queries raised by Kriti Devi Debbarman and Eatala Rajender.
With policy, funding and platforms now aligning, India’s creator economy is getting a structured push. The message is clear. From classrooms to global screens, the next wave of storytellers is being built at scale.
