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IBM’s end-to-end IT solution to ‘animate’ Crest Comm
MUMBAI: ‘Creating opportunities’ – the catchphrase for FICCI Frames 2004 is translating into actual deals taking place on the ground. Mumbai based animation company Crest Communications has tied up with IBM to set up an end-to-end IT infrastructure that will help Crest ramp up its digital animation movie production.
IBM will provide and implement its open source based Digital Content Creation solution for Crest’s next generation digital animation studio.
IBM Digital Media Solutions and Services Asia Pacific manager Quentin Staes-Polet, who was in Mumbai for FICCI Frames 2004, was quoted in a statement saying, “We are passionate about working with an innovative company such as Crest Communications to exploit the flexibility and power of open standards-based computing technology in the fast-growing animation industry.”
Since the IT architecture provided by IBM will be based on the open source technology, it will allow Crest to quickly ramp up or down their IT infrastructure on demand, depending on the workload.
IBM’s digital content creation offering will enable Crest to simplify their operations and technical environment, making it possible for the company to lower the high cost of rendering (creating an image of objects designed in a three-dimensional modeling program) and significantly shorten the content creation cycle time.
IBM will help Crest evolve the way digitally animated movies are made by making the animation process faster, more effective and cost efficient through the use of on demand computer technology, Staes-Polet added.
As part of the solution, IBM is also providing a variable IBM Global Financing leasing program which allows Crest to better manage their costs without sacrificing the quality of the content or the time needed to create it. IBM has also offered Crest a variable payment model that leverages IBM Global Financing options.
Additionally, IBM Global Services will help Crest manage its IT investments and improve operations and performance with infrastructure and systems management services, business continuity and recovery services, technical support services, and maintenance services.
“IBM’s Digital Content Creation solution enables us to simultaneously produce a number of computer-animated shows for our diverse client needs,” Crest Communications CEO AK Madhavan said in the statement. Crest is currently negotiating with clients across the television, home video and theatrical space, in India and across the US and Europe.
The IBM Digital Content Creation solution is a comprehensive suite of IBM workstations, servers, software, storage and services all designed to support animators, special effects wizards and digital media producers.
Increasingly, animation companies in India are now looking at open source technology for developing their businesses. Apart from Crest, Bangalore based Jadoo Works is also using the open source engine for animation.
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India’s AI Future Gets a Neural Kick-Off in Delhi
NDTV IND.AI Summit on 18 Feb 2026 to debate governance, ethics, and India’s big-tech ambitions.
MUMBAI: Artificial intelligence is about to get a very Delhi welcome smart, spirited, and ready to out-think the room. On 18 February 2026, New Delhi plays host to the inaugural NDTV IND.AI Summit, a high-stakes pow-wow that promises to put India’s AI ambitions under the brightest spotlight yet. Billed as a deep dive into how artificial intelligence is already rewiring the nation’s economy, policy playbook, and strategic dreams, the one-day event is curated by NDTV in partnership with the Startup Policy Forum. At its core lies a single, sharp question: how do you unleash AI’s transformative power while keeping trust, equity, and sanity intact?
The guest list reads like a who’s-who of global AI heavyweights. Former UK prime minister Rishi Sunak headlines a special session on AI in governance, sharing hard-won lessons on how the technology is reshaping statecraft and decision-making. Joining the fray are OpenAI’s Chris Lehane, UC Berkeley’s AI safety pioneer Stuart Russell, and Google’s James Manyika, voices that will anchor India firmly in the international conversation on accountability, risk, and cross-border cooperation.
Beyond the policy wonks, the Summit rolls up its sleeves for real-world impact. General Catalyst’s Hemant Taneja and other top-tier investors will unpack how AI is redrawing the rules of capital, innovation, and long-term value creation. Separate tracks will tackle AI’s footprint in workplaces, large-scale adoption, productivity shifts, evolving job roles, and organisational culture. India’s digital public infrastructure, often hailed as a global blueprint for inclusive tech gets its own spotlight, alongside a dedicated segment on AI sovereignty: what does true national control look like in a borderless tech universe?
NDTV CEO and editor-in-chief Rahul Kanwal framed the event’s bigger picture, “The IND.AI Summit is about the kind of future we are choosing to build. India has the scale, the talent, and the moral imagination to shape how AI serves society and this Summit is our way of bringing the most credible voices together to define that direction.”
In a world where AI chatter can feel abstract, the New Delhi gathering aims to ground the debate in India’s own story, one that ties cutting-edge innovation to public purpose, domestic priorities to global influence, and raw ambition to responsible stewardship. Whether you’re an algorithm enthusiast or just mildly curious about tomorrow’s headlines, this Summit is India signalling it’s not just catching the AI wave, it intends to help steer it.
