Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

In 2015, Krishnagar Women's College in West Bengal's Nadia district made headlines across the country for opening its doors to Manabi Bandopadhyay, its first transgender principal. This was a revolutionary movement, for it demonstrated the true meaning of inclusivity. In the tech industry, a recent TechGig survey indicated that 77% of tech firms go out of their way to retain LGBTQ+ developers. Another Economic Times article reported how during Pride Month, companies in India are increasingly expressing their support for the LGBTQ+ community. The same piece, however, said that many companies still remain silent about caste equity, highlighting the need to continuously work towards expanding the definition of what diversity truly means. Studies by the University of Washington and Yale show that stereotypical notions shaped by unconscious biases affect 90-95% of people from early childhood. Little shifts, I believe, are as important as big steps. As an organisational psychologist and bestselling author, <keyword id="489453" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="adam-grant" source="Orion">Adam Grant</keyword>, says, "Changing your mind is a moment of growth." This means that organisations can also grow to encompass new ideas and guide their employees to grow beyond their unconscious biases. However, let us start at the very beginning with a basic question. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="What do Diversity and Inclusion (D&amp;I) stand for?" comment="subhead" text="What do Diversity and Inclusion (D&amp;I) stand for?">What do Diversity and Inclusion (D&amp;I) stand for?</cmsannotation> A UK-based consultancy, Global Diversity Practice, explains diversity as: "In a nutshell, it’s about empowering people by respecting and appreciating what makes them different, in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, education, and national origin." It is important, however, to acknowledge that diversity has many complex layers and is defined by external and internal factors. In a safe workplace, there is no discrimination against anyone based on their external or internal identity. A safe workplace is also where everyone is treated with respect regardless of their job function or organisational hierarchy. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Why Diversity and Inclusion matter" comment="subhead" text="Why Diversity and Inclusion matter">Why Diversity and Inclusion matter</cmsannotation> Diversity and inclusion ensure that the idea pool is enriched with diverse perspectives. Inclusion also makes good business sense because when all employees feel a sense of belonging, their work quality and productivity increase. A recent Forbes article by management consultant <keyword id="654535" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="david-michels" source="Orion">David Michels</keyword> says that more women in the workplace bring leadership capabilities, professionalism, self-motivation, resilience, networking and collaborative skills to the table. When women occupy leadership positions, they also unfailingly mentor women who aspire to be leaders. Today when companies all over the world are in need of advanced digital skills, they are beginning to realise that only by being inclusive, gender-sensitive and expanding their search across various ages, backgrounds, and ethnicities will they be able to attract the best talent. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="How do we retain diversity?" comment="subhead" text="How do we retain diversity?">How do we retain diversity?</cmsannotation> During the pandemic, more women left the job market worldwide because of unrelenting domestic responsibilities and consequent burnout. Foreseeing this, many companies extended flexibility to caregivers who needed a little time and space to focus on their domestic responsibilities. It is not just important to hire more women to join the workstream but also to retain them. Inclusivity must begin from the hiring process and percolate down to HR practices and managerial conduct. A leader must ensure that respect for diversity, intersectionality and inclusivity is reflected in the formal and informal workplace language, pay equity and work culture where conscious or unconscious biases don't show up to disrupt professional equations. Leading by example is the best way to foster inclusion and respect regardless of ethnicity, gender, caste, religious affiliation, race or sexual orientation. Listening to employees and providing them with equal opportunities for growth and a safe space to talk about their issues is another way to show them that they matter. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Everybody wins in a diverse workplace" comment="subhead" text="Everybody wins in a diverse workplace">Everybody wins in a diverse workplace</cmsannotation> A 2020 <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/diversity-wins-how-inclusion-matters">report</a> by <keyword id="6372399" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="mckinsey" source="Orion">McKinsey</keyword> &amp; Company titled “Diversity wins: How inclusion matters” highlights that over the past five years, the likelihood that diverse companies will out-earn their industry peers has grown. While analysing the importance of diversity and inclusion across 1000 companies from 15 countries, McKinsey also throws light on the importance of ‘social listening’—identifying and assessing what the internet or social media users say about a brand. A 2017 white paper by Decision Intelligence platform Cloverpop went on to survey 600 business decisions by 200 business teams over a span of two years and found that diverse teams made better decisions up to 87 per cent of the time. But can people with fundamental differences always work amicably? Yes, if a company has solid inclusion policies, everyone on board can row the boat together. When a workplace is teeming with diversity, there could be communication gaps based on linguistic differences and hearing or speaking difficulties. Too many opinions or conflicting ideas may also slow productivity, and subtle or overt discrimination against LGBTQ workers, socially backward employees, or women may create an unhealthy atmosphere. This is where a company's commitment to go beyond tokenism is tested. A strong and clear company policy regarding code of conduct, compensation, and termination procedures can navigate these seemingly complex hurdles, as does diversity training and decisive leadership! Documenting best practices and policies, a non-discrimination module in the annual employee training agenda, and having Employee Resource Groups (ERG) to encourage synergy and mentoring will also help in establishing a truly exemplary workspace. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Creating a diverse workplace" comment="subhead" text="Creating a diverse workplace">Creating a diverse workplace</cmsannotation> According to a Deloitte University report, 83 per cent of millennials are actively engaged when they believe their organisation fosters an inclusive culture. So how should an organisation engage employees to foster this trust? A Harvard Business Review article outlined six behaviours that can unlock innovation through strategies that generate confidence and trust nearly a decade ago. These range from ensuring that everyone is heard, making it safe for anyone to propose novel ideas, delegating decision-making authority, sharing credit for success, giving constructive and actionable feedback, and implementing feedback from the team. The piece also highlights the critical role of leaders in inspiring fresh insights and tapping into the "innovative potential" of their team members. This is why some of the most innovative companies are also proudly diverse. In India, the idea of inclusion of diversity and inclusion may be at a nascent stage, but we are on the right path. As a truly diverse country, we know that we can only move forward when we do not leave anyone behind. <keyword id="5602220" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="gitanjali-singh" source="Orion">Gitanjali Singh</keyword> is the Head of Strategy and Client Success at the Visionet BFSI This column is part of a year-long (2022-23) campaign on the theme “Only One Earth: Sustaining People, Planet and Prosperity” by <keyword id="1857762" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="business-insider-india" source="Orion">Business Insider India</keyword>’s <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/sustainability">Sustainability Insider</a>. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/sustainability/article/opinion-green-financing-in-india-need-significance-urgency-and-way-forward/articleshow/92948265.cms">OPINION: Green financing in India — Need, significance, urgency, and way forward</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/sustainability/article/opinion-fostering-sustainable-leadership-in-businesses-to-ensure-better-corporate-governance/articleshow/92948831.cms">OPINION: Fostering sustainable leadership in businesses to ensure better corporate governance</a> Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the author/interviewee do not necessarily reflect the views of Business Insider India. The article has been partly edited for length and clarity.

OPINION: Creating a truly diverse and inclusive workplace — Sustainability through inclusivity

<ul><li>In our latest interview series, we talk to brands to understand how they are coping with the new normal and their strategies towards navigating these difficult times.</li><li>Since retail has been impacted severely, we talk to <keyword id="5602220" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gitanjali-Singh">Gitanjali Singh</keyword>, Vice President Marketing, <keyword id="194788" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Select-Citywalk">Select CITYWALK</keyword> on how the organization is trying to bounce back and preparing for the post-Covid world.</li></ul>The last one month has thrown a lot of unforeseen challenges to the entire world. As people across the globe are trying to cope with this new normal, there are a lot of things that might change forever. The way businesses are being conducted might see a complete overhaul. People might be unwilling to venture out for a long time to come, at least till a vaccine is developed. This is also expected to bring about behavioural changes in consumers. We might not go out shopping or watch movies in theatres for a long time to come. This might have a huge impact on the retail space. However, businesses are working around the current situation and thinking of innovative ways to ensure that there’s business continuity in a post-Covid world. We recently caught up with Gitanjali Singh, Vice President Marketing, Select CITYWALK, to understand the impact on retail, their marketing strategies and also their future plans to minimize the business impact. Edited excerpts: Q) How challenging has the last month been for you considering the lockdown has led to the complete closure of malls? The last one month has been of complete lockdown. It has been an unprecedented event, for all of us across the globe. It is a new reality and has been challenging, specially for us as we have witnessed a vibrant presence of people at Select CITYWALK across our years of operation. We do miss that. However, we have not completely closed down and still have essential commodity stores and pharmacies open for the public. Q) Do you anticipate a behavioural change in consumers in the post lockdown days, when people might be scared of going to public spaces? If that happens, how do you plan to tackle the challenge? During the lockdown, which still persists, a limited number of consumers have been visiting the shopping center for essential purchases only. There has been anxiety among consumers, and there will be a behavioral change in consumers post lockdown. Post the lockdown; it is clear that there’ll be hesitation in the mind of the consumer to step out. However, people want to travel, eat out, be entertained, and to have experiences in-person. These activities will be unchanged but the way we perform these activities will change and it’ll take time for things and habits to pick up. As a public space, we will have all the required necessary checks, which will be a must in the initial post lockdown stage such as: <ul><li>Compulsory Masks for everyone</li><li>Temperature Checking at entrances</li><li>Sanitization at all entrances including entrance for goods at the shopping centre</li><li>Sanitization at the entrance of stores</li><li>Social distancing will be maintained</li><li>F&amp;B and Cinema will be treated separately as per the new sitting policy </li><li>Encouraging more digital payments and having more options for customers </li></ul>Q) During a crisis, it is important to keep communicating with your customer. How have you been doing that? Earlier through several mall activities and regular celebrations, we were always in touch with our customers. Post the lockdown, this was a challenge for us, but we wanted to keep our customers engaged. To strengthen our connection, we began relevant content through the campaign #hereforyou. We bring robust and engaging social media content that appeals to all our followers, in the same refreshing format as our offline experience has been. Our social media content follows our destination's diverse offerings for the entire family while taking the narrative online. Prepared with intent to help all followers, stay home, stay safe, and stay fit, the content is both engaging and interspersed with tips on navigating life through the lockdown. Ranging from fitness tips from well-known trainers like Zoe Modgill, and Mallika Dang, to mindfulness exercises from experts like Nitya Shanti, it also traverses fashion, skincare and petcare from experts like Ayesha Amin Nigam among others. Weekends bring 'lives' with well-known names like Vesna Jacob, Sunaina Rekhi for fitness, or Simar's Nail Bar for that perfect weekend indulgence. The content being shared brings together experts from across many categories, to bring the best across their passion points, learning and joyfulness for the entire family in this period. Bringing together a sense of belonging and community, the social media content moves between short video interactions with experts, as well as Live sessions on the weekend. Encouraging all visitors to stay home and stay safe, it is a way for Select CITYWALK to bring the spirit of positivity across. Q) What have you been doing in terms of marketing? Has there been a change in your media mix? The current focus is on digital as everyone is consuming content across webinars and social media. Apart from the engaging content as mentioned above, we have recently gone live with our <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/dilseshukrana/">#DilSeShukrana</a> campaign saluting all those who continue to give us hope and for choosing to fight for us, and for our safety. Q) What have been your biggest learnings from the Covid-19 experience so far? Do you think the experience has made you more resilient? It is going to be a new normal for all of us out there; for all the industries and brands, this experience will be full of learnings of consumers and shopper behavior. Our biggest learning from this experience is that we all have time to innovate and think of the future in a much more empathetic manner, map out things in a proper way because change is rapid, and we all need to go with the flow. These experiences have certainly made us as an organization more resilient, and we all thrive on having the right value chain initiative in place. Q) While communicating is important, the tone of the communication can be misread as being opportunistic. How have you ensured the intent of your communication was not misinterpreted by consumers? At this time where all brands are adjusting and are trying every day to come up with something new and innovative, it can, at times, be misread by the consumers if not communicated well. For us, from the beginning, it was all for the customers, and we had a very simple thought of being with them at these tough times. To not be misjudged or misinterpreted, we have had communication, which builds a connection with our customers - Waiting for the one you love is always worthwhile. Mind if we take a break and Select CITY-WALK later? <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/hereforyou/">#HereForYou</a>. With this campaign, we have urged people to sit back and take a break, and we will help them with all that they need to learn or probably help them keep busy.

Marketing in the times of Covid-19: Select Citywalk

<ul><li>The pandemic and lockdown period has brought many new learnings for all businesses, and e-commerce has undoubtedly been one of the sectors with the biggest takeaways.</li><li>As we enter a new year, we reached out to e-commerce platforms to understand what role it would play in 2022.</li></ul>The e-commerce segment has been witnessing a good growth over the last few years and has been showing no signs of slowing down in India. And why would it? Hasn’t shopping become so much easier now? We can buy anything, from groceries and perfumes to expensive jewellery, from the comfort of our homes. The pandemic further brought fundamental and long-term changes in the way people shop and make their purchase decisions. It has accelerated the industry’s growth in the country as historically offline shoppers also downloaded ecommerce apps onto their phones to shop from within the safety of their four walls. The past year and a half has brought millions of new e-commerce users, including from smaller cities and towns who now are comfortable with buying online. The industry has witnessed an uptick of 77% between 2020 and 2021 and Tier II, III cities are transacting more than ever, said a recent report by Bobble AI. This trend has pushed e-commerce platforms to embrace a wide range of regional brands and local sellers, which offer a compelling value proposition to consumers. With increasing internet penetration, e-commerce players are expecting new growth from Tier II, III and beyond, which will cumulatively contribute to $150 billion of e-commerce as per RedSeer Consulting’s report. The Indian market is expected to surpass the US to become the second-largest e-commerce market in the world by 2034, revealed another <a href="https://www.ibef.org/industry/ecommerce-presentation">report</a>. It is poised to reach US$99 billion by 2024 from US$30 billion in 2019, expanding at a 27% CAGR, with grocery and fashion becoming the key drivers of this incremental growth. As we enter a new year and e-commerce further expands its presence deeper into the country, we speak to a few e-commerce platforms to discuss what lies ahead, where would the second phase of growth come from and trends that would dominate the industry. Here’s what they had to say: <keyword id="1922572" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="manish-taneja" source="Orion">Manish Taneja</keyword>, Founder and CEO <keyword id="1688931" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="purplle-com" source="Orion">Purplle.com</keyword>: The year has witnessed major growth in the beauty ecommerce industry, ushering in the next year with great potential. In 2022, the emergence of virtual reality tools will fuel the industry. Offering virtual beauty experiences that seamlessly merge with an omni-channel approach will be the norm. Over the next year, we at Purplle will invest heavily in technology and data science advancements to further personalize customer experience. Natural, transparent beauty products, effortless shopping with shorter delivery times, data-based product development, and value-driven experiences, are some of the other trends that will emerge in 2022. Bharati Balakrishnan- Country Head and Director, Shopify India: The Indian ecommerce market will continue to evolve in 2022, with D2C brands taking centrestage, driven by growing consumer demand and local brands increasingly making ecommerce a priority. On the one hand, the new shopping habits formed over the past 18 months will become an important factor: consumers have embraced online shopping and are actively choosing small, independent brands. This means that D2C brands are here to stay, and we anticipate the emergence of a new generation of proudly Indian brands across food, fashion and lifestyle. Simultaneously, traditional brands and retailers who dominate offline are evolving to meet the demands of the new consumer - they are building to provide a consistent experience to their consumers across online and offline, and would like to use their own online stores to truly extend their brand promise to existing and new customers. It’s an exciting time to be a consumer brand in India Amit, CEO, <keyword id="9798181" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="olx-autos-india" source="Orion">OLX Autos India</keyword>: Rise of the prosumer: The many faces of personalisation With the majority of buyers now clearly preferring online shopping over the traditional format of in-store purchasing, the new trend is inclined towards the forward-thinking, influential and proactive prosumer. Personalisation of the products according to customers preference will be key in 2022. E-commerce marketers will need to integrate personalizing products through advanced technologies in order to provide tailor made and seamless customer experiences. In a cookie-less world, contextual marketing has reared its head in a big way. Targeting consumers has come of age - from category, to keyword, to semantic contextual targeting, now. Many more trends like crypto payments, and dynamic pricing will grow for pure-play retailers. But it is personalization for the prosumer that will chart the way forward. <keyword id="2227756" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="prabhkiran-singh" source="Orion">Prabhkiran Singh</keyword>, Founder CEO, Bewakoof: Live video commerce, Virtual trial rooms (or AR/VR driven fit assists), customized lifestyle products and 3D animated UX interactions are the key trends we expect to disrupt shopping experience in the coming year. Video or content commerce would be largely driven by influencer or user generated content. To drive scalability, there will be multiple SAAS companies launching solutions to simplify handshakes between brands and influencers in content acquisition, ingestion and performance driven payments space. Early movers in the space are Myntra Studio, <keyword id="8861782" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="trell" source="Orion">Trell</keyword> and Bewakoof Bshots. With large VC investments going into the Web 3.0 and metaverse space, a lot of the product cataloging problems around accurate sizing or fit assessment would become more trivial. We will see brands launching virtual trial rooms, 3D product shoots and fit assistants to bridge the gap between online and offline shopping experience. 3 out of 10 customers who shop on our platform would like to customize their product design and sizing. We see this as a growing trend that multiple brands will adhere to in the coming year. 3D and animated content will become a UX trend in the consumer internet industry. Animations used to be a hindrance to many designers and developers as they may slow the loading speed of websites or apps and it is data consuming. With 5G scaling up and 4G becoming a norm across the country, designers will chose to use more animations. Kashyap Vadapalli, Chief Marketing Officer &amp; Business Head, <keyword id="864887" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="pepperfry" source="Orion">Pepperfry</keyword>: ‘MarTech’, which essentially means amalgamation of marketing with technology, is the future of commerce where brands will run marketing in a digital and connected ecosystem to offer an immersive experience to their customers. With the advancement of technology in marketing, consumers are constantly looking for an enhanced buying experience. Thereby meaning, from 2022 onwards we will witness more technology integrated experiences like development of offline Virtual Reality shopping rooms for consumers. Since VR offers an immersive 360-degree perspective, products in virtual design, especially big-ticket items like furniture can be easily a luscious offering for customers who want an interactive experience with the product before making the decision, therefore, simplifying the buyer’s journey. Going forward, I believe, Martech will play a dominant role in the strategic priorities and investments of brands, pushing marketers to embrace digital operations and integrated customer experience. <keyword id="12792513" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="shubh-darpan" source="Orion">Shubh Darpan</keyword>, VP- BI &amp; Analytics, Cashify: From the trends we have seen over the past couple of years, we at Cashify believe that the demand for refurbished mobiles is here to stay. It started with the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns when having a mobile became a necessity. Refurbished devices such as smartphones, laptops, tablets, etc. were seen to be preferred by the Indian consumer. Mainly because of the economic aspect of it, the refurbished market has seen an upward motion in India. Moreover, with the shortage of chipsets, there have been fewer smartphone launches in recent times. This too has been a factor in pushing consumers towards refurbished mobiles. Refurbished smartphones offer an optimal and sustainable solution to today's tech-dependent world and we can see it going a long way. Gitanjali Saxena, Business Head - Global Luxury, Tata CLiQ Luxury <div type="image" title="Gitanjali Saxena, Business Head - Global Luxury, Tata CLiQ Luxury" msid="88446509" hostid="261"></div> Inherently, shopping is a social experience. As people continue to spend an increasing amount of time online and on social media, online shopping, which witnessed a huge boost because of the pandemic, is now also becoming social. Social shopping, which is already booming in countries like China, has been gaining momentum in India and will be a leading trend in the coming year. Engaging and immersive formats of selling, such as live commerce, will be at the forefront. In addition, AR and VR will play a crucial role in enhancing the online shopping experience, enabling more personalization, and targeting niche customers. Some of the biggest brands in the luxury fashion and beauty industries are working closely with social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat to leverage their capabilities of live streaming, in-app shopping, and augmented reality to offer an experience that every luxury customer desires. Snapchat has harnessed the power of technology and introduced an augmented reality lens that allows for a virtual try-on of products. Convenience, personalization, and a sense of community are some of the drivers fuelling the growth of social shopping. The advancement of technology is unlocking a slew of exciting opportunities in social shopping, including user-generated content, virtual product try-ons, direct interaction with brands and peers, and instant gratification. E-commerce platforms will reimagine their strategy to integrate social shopping elements by introducing innovative and engaging formats to bolster their reach and engagement with customers. With social shopping, e-commerce platforms can revolutionize the way people shop on their platforms by presenting a new way of shopping.

Ecommerce: The trends to watch out for in 2022

New Delhi, Apr 5 () Penguin Random House India has offered a quarantine reading list of books for the coronavirus lockdown period.Among the recommendations for adult fiction are "The Death of Jesus" by JM Coetzee, "The Boy from the Woods" by Harlan Coben, "Soar: A Novel" by Amit Majmudar, "Sarojini's Mother" by Kunal Basu, "Not All Those Who Wander" by Arjun Nath, "Trending in Love" by Pankaj Dubey, "The Girl Who Disappeared" by Vikrant Khanna and "Crown of Seven Stars" by Gitanjali Murari.Some culinary books are also in the reading list - "Uparwali Chai" by Pamela Timms, "Party Like a Star" by Shilarna Vaze, "Bhagwaan Ke Pakwaan" by Varud Gupta and Devang Singh, and Pooja Makhija's "N For Nourish".Non-fiction books include "Bahawalpur" by Anabel Lyod, "The Other Side of the Divide" by Sameer Arshad Khatlani, and "An Officer and his Holiness" by Rani Singh.In sports, some books recommended are "Howzatt Butterfingers" by Khyrunnisa A, "Let's Play!: Puffin Book of Sports Stories" by Harsha Bhogle and "Dear Me", a collection of letters from some of the most-celebrated names in sports by HT Media.There are many books for children too - "The Best of Tenali Raman", "The Girl Who Stole an Elephant" by Nizrana Farook, "Journey to the Forbidden City" by Deepa Agarwal, and "I Hate my Curly Hair" besides few from Penguin's Hook Book Series - "Hey Diddle Diddle" (Anushka Ravishankar), "My Daddy and the Well" (Jerry Pinto), "A Quiet Girl" by Paro Anand, and "Who's There?" by Hansda Sowvendra.Two recommended books for children are science related - "From Leeches to Slug Glue" by Roopa Pai and "Reignited Volume 2" by Srijan Pal Singh. ZMN RDSRDS

Penguin Random House offers quarantine reading list

Near the end of 2013, the animated movie <keyword id="6366669" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mahabharat">Mahabharat</keyword> was released and was touted as “India’s most expensive multi-starrer <keyword id="21778" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="80" keywordseo="animation">animation</keyword> film.” The voice actors included the who’s who of contemporary Indian cinema. Amitabh Bachchan lent his voice to the iconic character of Bhishma; Ajay Devgan was Arjun; Sunny Deol was Bheem and Vidya Balan was Draupadi. None of the actors charged any fee and yet, the movie had a budget of Rs 50 crore. After the first week, it managed to earn just Rs 1.5 crore. 
 
Mahabharat was a phenomenal flop. 
 
But much of it had to do with the low quality animation that people ended up watching on-screen. And the studio blamed for such below-par work was a Juhu-based one called Pen India Pvt Ltd. Surely, there was nothing wrong with the story – Mahabharat is one of the most popular epics in the world. And the voice-acting was top-notch. So the only factors behind the debacle were the quality of animation and marketing. 
 
Outsourcing kills creativity Like many other industries, animation in India earns most of its revenues through outsourced projects from American and European studios. According to a secondary research presented in the <keyword id="6372077" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Nasscom">NASSCOM</keyword> Industry Report, the money earned by Indian animation and VFX studios from global projects has steadily increased over the past decade. 
 
While that is good news from a business standpoint, the increasing number of outsourced projects also means that the animators are constantly working under strict deadlines and their project work is always under remote supervision which hardly leaves any room for creative decision-making. For the global studios, the Indian animation talent is akin to a sweatshop where the designs and plans are already in place and the workers are only expected to execute them. Such an environment not only tramples upon creativity but also leaves little time to pursue one’s creative aspirations. The few animators who choose not to work for those studios often find it difficult to earn a decent living. This is because the domestic market for animation is quite small. In 2009, domestic projects only accounted for 30% of the total revenues the industry earned. The rest came from outsourced animation, gaming and VFX work. 
 
Failure to woo the target audience 
As animated movies are relatively new in India, one of the biggest mistakes happened in figuring out the right content for a particular demographic. If you were to look at some of the animated films that came from India and achieved very little success, you might end up thinking – here’s a country where kids love Hindu mythology. 
 
It might seem odd now but that’s exactly what the producers had in mind when they released movies like Ramayan, Chhota Bheem, Ghatotkach, Krishna, etc. All of these feature stories from Hindu mythology and as India has the largest Hindu population, the producers just assumed that these stories would be popular. What a wrong assumption to make! What they don’t realise is that these stories are already known to Indian kids and they are not getting anything new or original out of these films. However, the Indian film industry is partly to blame for this – originality has never been its strong point. 
 Animation film-makers of India need to learn from studios like <keyword id="161299" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Pixar">Pixar</keyword>, <keyword id="11201" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Dreamworks">DreamWorks</keyword> and Disney who come up with highly original scripts such as <keyword id="241494" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="40" keywordseo="Wall-E">WALL-E</keyword>, Kung-fu Panda, Madagascar, Toy Story, How to Train Your Dragon and more. On the other hand, the Indian audience must change their mindset and start enjoying good animated films. Discarding an animated movie as a ‘cartoon’ film is an indication that most Indian viewers still think that anything animated is meant ‘for the kids.’ If only our people grew up on Japanese Manga and Anime from a very early age… 
 
Training counts Animation can be taught while sketching is a talent that is honed over a longer period of time. So, the first thing wannabe animators need to know is that you need to love art, drawing and sketching. In India, people often choose animation as a career just because it is a booming sector. Five years ago, they might have chosen biotechnology or marine engineering for the same reason. But that’s not the way to go about choosing a career. There are a handful of really good schools in India for learning animation, illustration or design – such as the National Institute of Design (NID), Srishti School of Art and Design, <keyword id="2199190" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="40" keywordseo="J-J-Institute-of-Applied-Art">J.J. Institute of Applied Art</keyword>, etc. Aspirants should target these schools instead of opting for short-term certificate courses that promise placement. Some of the best Indian animators studied in these well-known institutions. For instance, Vaibhav Kumaresh, a student of NID, is one of the most coveted names in Indian animation. He is the one who created Channel V’s famous Sardar Simpoo Singh Sodhi and the Amaron Battery characters. Gitanjali Rao, an alumnus of J.J. Institute of Applied Art, won an award in <keyword id="6366702" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Cannes">Cannes</keyword> in 2006 for her animated short, Printed Rainbow. 
 
The future of animation in India can go either way. If we can come up with a few studios which will devote resources and talent for consistently creating really good content and art, the production will be on par with the industry leaders. A good marketing team can then sell it to the world. But without such initiatives, animation in India may just end up being a prop for creating logos for production houses and meeting deadlines for other studios who will get all the credit for creativity.

You Searched For "gitanjali singh" and got 5 results

OPINION: Creating a truly diverse and inclusive workplace — Sustainability through inclusivity

Gitanjali Singh

Marketing in the times of Covid-19: Select Citywalk

Samarpita Banerjee

Ecommerce: The trends to watch out for in 2022

Karuna Sharma

Penguin Random House offers quarantine reading list

PTI

Animation In India In Dire Need Of Good Content And Marketing

Preetam Kaushik

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides