The announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit-WAVES 2025 in Mumbai last month to establish the Indian Institute of Creative Technology (IICT) is not just an only budgetary provision but a firm determination and bold declaration of the leadership with intent — “Na ruka hai, na rukega, ye desh hamesha aage hi badega”. The allocation of `400 crore for setting up IICT in Mumbai signals to the world that India is ready to lead in creativity, innovation, and digital transformation.
The WAVES 2025 was a celebration of artistic excellence that brought together the nation’s dreamers and creators. In addition to recognising their talent, the event honoured a diverse group of innovators and storytellers, demonstrating the leadership’s strong commitment to creating new opportunities for the country’s creative economy. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw aptly put it that IICT will catalyse a new kind of economy rooted in imagination, technology, and cultural strength.
More than just an event, WAVES 2025 reflects our identity and roots. As technology changes how we create and share stories, this year’s theme encourages us to stay connected to our heritage. It’s about making room for every voice, every story, and every tradition-while keeping creativity fair, accessible, and ethical. WAVES 2025 stands for a future that blends innovation with identity.
It invites us to grow while staying true to who we are, letting our history guide and inspire the stories of tomorrow. As we move forward, supporting local ideas, traditions, and cultural expressions alongside modern creativity is just as important. More than an academic institution, IICT is poised to become a national launchpad for imagination. It aligns with the aspirations of millions of young Indians who don’t just want to consume global digital content but are ready to create, lead, and shape it. With the right infrastructure and leadership vision, IICT offers a platform to translate raw talent into global — class innovation. In the age of innovation, creativity is the new capital — and India is investing in its brightest minds.This announcement comes at a pivotal time. During the YUGM Conclave in April this year, the Prime Minister emphasised a simple yet powerful truth: We have limited time and resources, but there is much to achieve. IICT represents a strategic response to this urgency — an ambitious leap toward a high-growth, innovation-led economy. This is more than an institution; it is a movement — a call for creators to rise, build, and lead from the front. Importantly, the evolution from ‘Kala’ (art) to Code, showcased at WAVES 2025, unites technology, storytelling, scripture, science, and script into one integrated national vision. This journey isn’t just cultural — it is economic. Through AR and VR, ancient knowledge is not only preserved but repurposed. These technologies are being used not only to bring scriptures alive but also to assist in complex medical surgeries, helping doctors plan better and make safer decisions.
This transformation also highlights a deeper truth: creativity is foundational to success in key sectors like education, healthcare, and advanced manufacturing. Creative thinking drives human — centred solutions, whether it’s the design of digital classrooms, intuitive medical tools, or smart factories. IICT recognises this and places creative capacity at the core of India’s future growth model.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called WAVES 2025 a wave of “culture, creativity, and universal connection”. He urged the young people to tell the world the “1 billion untold stories.” With its enormous population, he emphasised, India is a “land of a billion-plus stories,” rich in sports, science, culture, and other fields. “When the world is looking for new ways of storytelling, India has a history of stories which is timeless and thought-provoking,” he said, calling on the WAVES platform to carry this legacy forward globally. Highlighting the global appeal of Indian narratives, he noted that “foreign audiences are watching Indian content through subtitles” and spoke of the growing influence of OTT platforms: “Screen size is small but the scope is huge. Screen is micro but growth is significant.”
IICT will also be the first-of-its-kind institution where storytelling transforms from a cultural tradition into a thriving economic avenue. In India, storytelling isn’t just entertainment — it’s heritage. From the heartfelt “Dadi-Nani ki kahaniyan” to the moral — rich tales passed through generations, storytelling has always been the soul of Indian wisdom. But in today’s fast-paced digital era, this chapter of our cultural legacy is at risk of fading. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision is not to preserve heritage through nostalgia but to anchor it in opportunity. As he rightly observed, “In today’s world, only that which creates value can sustain visibility.” IICT transforms heritage from memory into prosperity by turning storytelling into a technology — supported profession.
The Government of India’s decision to prioritise the creative economy is among the most futuristic and visionary acts of leadership. The policy of “Virasat Bhi, Vikas Bhi” is not only poetic but powerful. To survive in today’s competitive world, imagination must not just be preserved; it must be empowered and rewarded. IICT is that empowerment. From idea to execution, India is investing in its creative, digital, and cultural future. The future isn’t waiting, and neither is India.
(The writer is a freelance journalist. Views expressed are personal)
