TN proposes to unveil new policy for animation, VFX, gaming

CHENNAI: The State government has proposed to unveil a new policy for animation, visual effects, gaming/comics and extended reality to woo investment to Tamil Nadu in the sector.

Replying to the debate on the demand for grants for his department, State Information Technology Minister Mano Thangaraj said that the animation, visual effects, gaming/comics and extended reality sector was seeing rapid growth at the national level.

To woo investments to Tamil Nadu in the aforesaid sectors, Tamil Nadu government would come up with a policy on animation, visual effects, gaming/comics and extender reality.

Thangaraj also announced an API (Application Programing Interface) gateway to integrate the software application of various departments of the state government using the State Family Database fund.

The API gateway would serve as an integrated platform for beneficiary departments to approach other departments, the minister added, informing the House that the API gateway would help ensure access to the database of all departments in a simple, safe and transparent manner besides facilitating hasty delivery of government service to people.

Among the announcements was the development of a Tamil Nadu DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) platform at Rs 1.72 crore (for four years) by TNeGA to facilitate transfer of benefit/subsidy/cash transfer from state and central governments to the bank accounts of the people.

A Tamil Nadu Single Sign-on platform would be created at a cost of Rs 11 crore by TNeGA to access all state government portals. TNeGa would also create a Tamil Nadu AI (artificial intelligence) mission in partnership with iTNT Hub using its own funds. The TN AI Mission would focus on promoting new initiatives in association with trading firms, education institutions and Startups. TNeGA would also provide 100 new services through e-sevai and citizen portals. Replying to the debate, Thangaraj told the House that a new hi-tech city would be developed in Coimbatore, Hosur and Chennai. Admitting that the patronage of Tamil Nadu Arasu Cable Tv fell owing the migration from Analog to high definition, the minister said that TACTV had 80 lakh subscribers during the Analog era, but it fell to 35 lakhs after the migration to high definition era owing to heavy competition from the private sector.

Other announcements:

Rs184 crore to provide high speed internet service to 20,000 government offices

Expansion of iTNT-Hub to tier-II and III cities.

A Center of excellence would be established for offering training to teachers on Electronic System Design and Manufacturing, Animal, visual effects, gaming/comics and IT.