Syllabus: GS– III & V: Growth

Why in the news?

• In the Union Budget 2026–27, the Finance Minister formally recognised the Orange Economy as a strategic pillar of growth and employment, with an allocation of ₹450 crore.
• Special focus has been placed on Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics, with large-scale skilling initiatives proposed through schools and colleges.

What is the Orange Economy?

• The Orange Economy, also called the Creative Economy, refers to economic activities where human creativity, culture, and intellectual capital are the primary inputs.
• The term draws from the symbolic association of orange with creativity and culture.
• According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, it includes industries involved in creating, producing, and distributing goods and services based on creativity and intellectual property.

Key sectors under the Orange Economy

• Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics, including extended reality
• Design, music, media, films, and digital content creation
• Handloom, handicrafts, fashion, jewellery, carpets, photography
• Cultural and natural heritage-based industries
• Software-driven creative services, which dominate global trade in creative services

Global significance

• The creative economy contributes between 0.5 per cent and 7.3 per cent of Gross Domestic Product and 0.5 per cent to 12.5 per cent of total employment in countries where data is available.
• It was first conceptualised by John Howkins in 2001, and later shaped by policy frameworks from UNESCO and the United Nations Development Programme.
• Countries such as South Korea have built global influence through creative exports like music, cinema, and gaming, while Japan’s “Cool Japan” initiative has turned culture into a major export driver.
• Bhutan is using creativity and culture to diversify its economy while aligning growth with its philosophy of happiness.

Why it matters for India

• The Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics sector alone is projected to need two million professionals by 2030, far beyond the capacity of a few specialised institutes.
• The Budget proposes Content Creator Labs in 15,000 secondary schools and 5,000 colleges, supported by the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies, to democratise skill development.
• Creative jobs are future-resilient, as they rely on imagination, storytelling, and cultural insight, which cannot be easily replaced by automation.

A major opportunity for Northeast India

• The Orange Economy offers the Northeast a development path not constrained by geography, land scarcity, or heavy industrialisation.
• The region already has strong cultural capital, rich traditions, music, crafts, and storytelling talent.
• Existing infrastructure such as technology parks, information technology hubs, and innovation centres can support creative startups and digital content enterprises.
• Creative industries allow the region to enter global value chains through ideas rather than extraction or heavy manufacturing.

Key challenges

• Limited awareness of creative industries as serious career options.
• Fragmented skilling efforts and lack of structured market linkages.
• Inadequate protection and monetisation of intellectual property rights for local creators.

Way forward

• Integrate creative skills into school and college curricula at scale.
• Build regional creative hubs linking culture, technology, and entrepreneurship.
• Strengthen intellectual property awareness and enforcement.
• Promote local culture through digital platforms, films, games, and global collaborations.

Conclusion

• The Orange Economy signals a shift from viewing culture as a soft sector to recognising it as a serious economic force.
• For India, and especially for culturally rich regions like the Northeast, creativity can become a sustainable, inclusive, and globally competitive growth engine.
• If nurtured well, ideas, stories, and culture can generate jobs, exports, and soft power, all at once.

Exam Hook – 

Question: “The Orange Economy represents a shift from resource-based growth to creativity-led development. Discuss its potential for employment generation and regional development in India.”

SOURCE