IIT Bombay teams up with Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for a gaming center
Prakash Javadekar, the minister for I&B made this announcement while address a game design competition. Here is everything we know about this gaming center that the ministry will create in partnership with IIT Bombay.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has just made a significant announcement for the gaming industry in India. According to the announcement, the ministry has teamed up with IIT Bombay to create a gaming center focused on development. The center will work to offer various courses related to gaming along with schemes that promote video games in India. Prakash Javadekar, the minister for Information, and Broadcasting made this announcement while address a game design competition on Sunday. For some context, Javadekar was addressing Khel Khel Mein: A Pan Maharashtra Toy/Game/ Project Design Competition. Here is everything we know about this gaming center that the ministry will create in partnership with IIT Bombay.
IIT Bombay and I&B Ministry to create a gaming center, details
As part of the announcement, Javadekar emphasized that India is a “historical center of sports.” He noted that “Prime Minister’s vision is to make India a major toy manufacturer. Soon, every Indian will realize his vision.” The Centre of Excellence in Gaming will offer courses on several gaming-related topics like VFX, game design, animation, and more. Javadekar stated that the ministry is “at an advanced stage of preparation” and will start offering courses this year. Students joining the new session can likely opt for the game-related courses.
The gaming center will help video games become a means of awareness and preservation for “the children and youth”. Javadekar also claimed that these games “leave a very bad impact” on the children. Game developers can likely create video games that focus on “Indian values, heritage, and cultural ethos”. They can focus on making titles “based on Indian culture with the VFX technology so that children develop good values”. He stated that the government will “introduce those values via modern technology and put it to optimum use.”
To highlight the bad, Javadekar stated that most smartphone games in the market are violent, explicit, addictive, and tend to create a complex in the mind of children.” As previously reported, he also claimed that PUBG Mobile was one such example of a smartphone game. However, the solution is to “create" video games and apps that are in "line with #MakeInIndia”.