- Indian gaming market to expect revenue of $1Billion by 2021.
- Industry leaders seeking TDS clarifications & GST incentives to foster market growth.
- Lack of awareness around gaming as a career posing challenges to industry maturity.
Prithvi Singh, the founder and chief technical officer at
Speaking to Moneycontrol, Kashyap Reddy, CEO and Co-founder of
Citing an example of Germany, which has established a national-level €50 million “Annual Gaming Fund”, Reddy says, “Lowering the goods and services tax (GST) on gaming revenue and cloud services to 5 per cent would also be a good initiative."
Reddy believes there is immense scope for creating more jobs in this sector as gaming caters to a global market. Unlike traditional entertainment, mobile gaming is one of the cheapest forms of entertainment available to the public since most mobile games follow a “free to play” model.
While the gaming industry has been recognised internationally, the lack of awareness around gaming as a potential career is a problem unique to developing markets like India. Traditional Indian households still look at gaming as a hobby, not a career that can translate to lucrative careers assured by medicine and engineering.
The social-stigma surrounding gaming, with the activity often picked as a soft-target for violence, addition and poor academic performance is another concern around the development of the industry.
Paavan Nanda, Co-founder of
Another area that can be improved on is digital payments and more initiatives from the government here would help push sales since most of these options are still locked away for a majority of Indians.
See also:
Here’s what it’s like to be a gamer in India
Google arms mobile games with a new feature to target emerging markets like India
Warning: You’ve been playing PUBG for far too long