Creative India: Exploring the Full Potential of the Creative Economy

Key Findings

• Between 2017–2018 and 2019–2020, average annual employment in India’s creative economy was around 39.73 million, accounting to about 8.30% of total employment in India during the period. This includes all three categories of workers: casual, regular salaried, and self-employed working in either the organised or the unorganised sector. 
• The contribution of the tertiary sector is the highest (50.73%), closely followed by the secondary sector (47.62%), whereas the primary sector’s contribution to creative employment is miniscule (1.65%). 
• Creative employment is more urban centric; a sizable 67.07% of all creative workers are in the urban areas, compared to merely 29.62% non-creative workers in the urban areas. 
• Out of the top ten creative districts in India, six are non-metros — indicating the diversity and depth of creativity across India. 
• The creative workforce has a lower gender pay gap than the non-creative workforce. Interestingly, within the Media, Entertainment, and Recreation industry group, female creative workers earn significantly higher than their male counterparts. 
• Key recommendations include:
  Increase the recognition of Indian culture globally
  Facilitate human capital development among its youth
  Address the bottlenecks in the Intellectual Property (IP) framework
  Improve access to finance
  Streamline the process of policymaking by establishing one intermediary organisation