Amazon Signs Deal With Indian Government to Boost Country’s Creative Economy
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Amazon India has signed a letter of engagement with the Indian government’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting with the objective of growing the country’s creative economy.
As part of the collaboration, Amazon and the ministry will help build pathways to promote creative talent in India, create capacity across film and TV institutes and globally showcase Indian-made creative content.
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Prime Video and miniTV will both work towards providing internships and scholarships to students at the Film and Television Institute of India and the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute. Additionally, to commemorate the celebrations around the 75th anniversary of Indian independence, iconic content from NFDC, state broadcaster Doordarshan and the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) will be showcased on Prime Video and miniTV. Further, skill-based masterclasses will be organized for the students of various film and TV institutes and 75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow – an annual talent enrichment program under the umbrella of IFFI where 75 young, talented artists, shortlisted by the ministry, will be selected and coached.
India’s National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) and Amazon’s global database IMDb will work together to help enable discoverability of India’s creative talent by listing their profiles and skill sets on the platform.
Amazon.in will also curate a storefront feature to promote books and journals across genres reflecting India’s heritage from the ministry’s publication division. There are plans to widen the reach of All India Radio via Amazon Music and Alexa.
The letter was signed at the National Media Centre, New Delhi on Wednesday, in the presence of Anurag Thakur, India’s Minister for Information and Broadcasting and Youth Affairs and Sports, Chetan Krishnaswamy, VP, public policy at Amazon India and Gaurav Gandhi, VP, Asia Pacific, Prime Video.
Amazon Prime Video’s “Jubilee,” a 1940s and 50s-set period series that charts the growing pangs of India and the rise of the country’s Hindi-language film industry, streams from April 7.
In 2021, Amazon India had to apologize for original series “Tandav,” some parts of which had offended members of the ruling party. The Indian streaming sector is self-regulated, operating under a “Digital Media Ethics Code” published by the government.
Thakur said: “The partnership would help to strengthen industry-academia linkages through provisions for scholarships, internships, masterclasses, and other opportunities for students at Film and Television Institute of India and Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute of India and help to reduce the period of struggle for the talented artists coming out of prestigious film institutes of India.”
Krishnaswamy added: “As the Indian economy expands at a fast clip, Amazon is uniquely placed to contribute to the nation’s growth journey on multiple fronts including e-commerce, logistics, digital skilling, cloud computing, payments, artificial intelligence and in building the creative economy. Over the years, we have been working with the Indian government to create a meaningful impact at scale through our various collaborations and initiatives.
Gandhi said: “Our rich cultural diversity offers immense potential, to drive a thriving creative economy and further India’s soft power internationally,” adding that the collaboration with the ministry would “stimulate the growth of the industry.”
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