Orange Economy: India’s Push to Become an IP Owner
Why in the news
India is reorienting its economic strategy around the Orange Economy, aiming to own characters and stories instead of just doing outsourced creative work.
What is the Orange Economy?
- Value comes from ideas, not raw materials or physical labour.
- Core sectors: design, film, animation, VFX, gaming, fashion, digital media and immersive storytelling (AR/VR).
- IP shift: rather than being paid to animate a foreign film, India would create its own characters that can be licensed for merchandise, sequels and games for decades.
- The term was popularised by the Inter-American Development Bank to set the creative economy apart from the “Green” (environment) and “Blue” (ocean) economies.
India’s digital and creative strength
| Indicator | Figure |
|---|---|
| Internet subscribers | Over 1.028 billion |
| Gaming | 2nd largest market worldwide; 42.5 crore gamers; 28% CAGR |
| Creator economy | 2-2.5 million creators influencing up to $400 billion of spending; projected $1 trillion by 2030 |
| YouTube ecosystem | ₹16,000 crore to GDP in 2024; nearly a million jobs |
Strategic advantages
- Myth and tradition: local stories and languages can grow into global franchises, as the US did with Marvel or Japan with Anime.
- Convergence: gaming, film and design blend so one story travels across platforms.
- AVGC-XR: Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics and Extended Reality, expected to generate 20 lakh jobs in a decade.
Key concepts
- Intellectual property: ownership of a creative work, earning royalties each time the character or story is used.
- Creator-led entrepreneurship: a digital creator uses an audience to launch a physical business instead of relying only on ad revenue.
Exam angle
- Acronym: AVGC-XR; jobs target: 20 lakh in 10 years.
- Gaming rank: 2nd in the world; CAGR: 28%.