Budget 2026 bets on youth-led creator economy as part of services growth story

Union Budget 2026 has backed the country’s growing ‘creator economy’ as part of India’s services-driven growth story. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman described the Budget as a “Yuva Shakti–driven” budget, underlining the government’s focus on youth, skills and new-age employment.

As part of the proposal, the government plans  to support the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies, Mumbai, in setting up AVGC (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics) Content Creator Labs in 15,000 secondary schools and 500 colleges. The initiative is linked to strengthening India’s ‘Orange Economy’, which covers creative industries such as media, entertainment and digital storytelling.

‘Improved content quality & spends’

Welcoming the announcement, Ankush Sachdeva, CEO and Co-founder of ShareChat and Moj, said the proposal to introduce AVGC content creator labs across schools and colleges is a timely move towards formalising India’s creator economy. “Today, creators influence over 30 percent of consumer purchase decisions and nearly $350–400 billion in consumer spending. As the next billion users emerge from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, ShareChat has seen how structured storytelling and culturally rooted formats are driving deeper engagement and influencing consumption at scale,” he said.

By enabling early, formal training in animation, visual storytelling and short-form content creation, the initiative will help creators build sustainable careers, improve content quality, and unlock the next phase of creator-led commerce, with creator-influenced spending expected to move towards $1 trillion by 2030.

As per industry estimates, India is home to over 80 million creators, of which more than four million actively monetise their content across platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Moj, ShareChat and emerging short-video and gaming platforms. Influencer marketing alone is estimated to be a ₹3,500–4,000 crore industry, growing at over 25 percent annually, driven by regional language content, social commerce and increasing brand reliance on creators to reach Gen Z and tiered-city audiences.

Atul Hegde, Founder and MD of YAAP, said that for Gen Z and Gen Alpha, creativity is native, platform-led and community-driven. “Early exposure to structured tools, mentorship and digital infrastructure can help convert informal passion into employable skills and sustainable careers. This move also bridges a long-standing gap between education and real-world digital behaviour, ensuring young creators are not just consumers of platforms but confident contributors to India’s creative and cultural economy,” he said.

Multiple market studies suggest that over 70 per cent of influencer marketing agencies in India fall under the MSME category. These firms operate with lean teams while managing hundreds or even thousands of creators. However, payment cycles in the sector often stretch between 60 and 120 days, particularly when agencies work with large FMCG, ecommerce and consumer technology brands through media intermediaries.

Ajay Kulkarni, Business Head, Ykone Barcode, said that while Budget 2026 did not directly address creators, the intent around MSMEs and ease of doing business is encouraging for influencer marketing agencies and creator-led startups. “Better access to working capital, quicker receivables and simpler compliance take a lot of day-to-day pressure off agencies managing large creator networks. Over time, this policy stability also gives brands the confidence to move from short-term bursts to more meaningful, long-term creator partnerships,” he said.

Vishwas Deoskar, CEO of the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT), under which 15,000 secondary schools and 500 colleges will receive AVGC content labs, told e4m that the move will accelerate job creation across media, entertainment and digital platforms. “It will also position India as a global hub for scalable, IP-led storytelling. Through a Hub-and-Spoke model, we see this as a defining moment to bridge education, industry and innovation, and we are committed to ensuring these investments translate into globally competitive creative talent,” he said.

Anirudh Sridharan, Co-founder of HashFame, added that one of the understated positives for creators this year is the government’s evolving view of creators as soft-power enablers. "For decades, global narratives about India were shaped largely by Western media, often focused on poverty and deprivation. Today, that perception is changing through creators, from Indian tech educators and gaming streamers to food, culture and travel creators gaining global traction. From films like RRR to Indian gaming creators collaborating internationally and Indian tech voices emerging as default problem-solvers on platforms like YouTube, the creator ecosystem is reshaping how India is perceived globally."

While the Budget may not explicitly call this out, investments in digital infrastructure and content capabilities indirectly strengthen India’s cultural and digital footprint, similar to how South Korea leveraged entertainment to build global soft power.

Shudeep Majumdar, Co-founder and CEO of Zefmo, said the IICT announcement is a welcome step towards formalising creator education, but cautioned that it addresses only the supply side. “Digital marketing now represents over 40 percent of advertising spends, yet the regulatory and fiscal framework has not evolved to support the agencies, brands and creators driving this shift. We are navigating GST ambiguity on creator payments, managing 60–90 day receivable cycles without working capital support, and lacking tax clarity that traditional media enjoys,” he said. 

Majumdar added that GST rationalisation for digital services, MSME benefits for creator-economy agencies, mandatory payment terms from brands and tax parity between influencer spends and conventional advertising could have strengthened the Budget. “The intent is clearly there, but execution and follow-through will determine whether this translates into genuine industry transformation,” he said.

According to Mad Influence CEO Gautam Madhavan, the Budget’s business-first, digital-first approach quietly sets the foundation for the creator economy. He added that the focus on digital content labs and the plan to upskill nearly two million professionals by 2030 across animation, VFX, gaming and AI aligns with the sector’s potential to generate at least a million new-age jobs over the next few years.

Sayak Mukherjee, Co-founder of Creatorcult, said the Budget reinforces a shift towards confidence-led growth rather than short-term consumption sops, which is structurally positive for advertising and the creator ecosystem. “When businesses expand and consumers spend, marketing budgets follow naturally,” he said, adding that investments in technology, data centres, AI review and semiconductor manufacturing signal a more mature digital ecosystem that will support sustained brand-building and influencer marketing.

Kalyan Kumar, Co-founder and CEO of KlugKlug, said tax reforms supporting IT and digital services, including automated safe harbour approvals and extended thresholds from ₹300 crore to ₹2,000 crore, create a more predictable regulatory environment for digital platforms and influencer-driven businesses.

Jag Chima, Co-founder of IPLIX Media, said the Budget recognises what the market already shows. “The creator economy is a serious economic engine, influencing hundreds of billions in annual consumer spending and supporting significant livelihoods. Structured creator labs linked with AVGC institutes will accelerate that growth by building deeper capabilities and career pathways,” he said.

Aryan Anurag, Co-founder of Binge Labs, said introducing labs at the school and college level can democratise access to creative tools, especially for students beyond metro cities, provided infrastructure is combined with mentorship and industry exposure.

Ambika Sharma, Founder and Chief Strategist at Pulp Strategy, said initiatives like Bharat-VISTAAR and AVGC Content Creator Labs signal a long-term bet on intelligence-first infrastructure, skills and production capacity, prioritising creation, IP and product ecosystems over media buying.

Veteran media professional Atika Farooqui said the creative economy must be treated as a full-fledged industry, with a focus on IP ownership, regional growth, formalisation, women creators and creator-led studios. “The orange economy is soft power with hard revenue. This is not entertainment alone, it is nation-building,” she said.

Arghya Chakravarty, COO of Shemaroo Entertainment, said the Budget marks a turning point for India’s creative economy, giving the industry confidence to invest in talent that can set global benchmarks.

Rajan Navani, Chairman of JetSynthesys and a Board Member of IICT, said the recognition of youth-led creation capabilities reinforces the role of creativity, content and digital-first industries in shaping India’s economic expansion. He added that the establishment of 15,000 content labs across schools and 500 colleges lays a strong foundation for India’s creative industries to compete globally.

Parth Chadha, Co-founder and CEO of STAN, said India’s creator ecosystem now includes millions of monetising individuals functioning like micro-enterprises. “MSME and ease-of-business reforms, especially around compliance, payments and formalisation, can help make this fast-growing sector more stable, scalable and investment-ready,” he said.