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Industry brief · Design & Creative

Design and creative work, from India's picture books

Vinayak Varma writes and illustrates children's books in Bengaluru, and talks on Building Real about creativity and the AI challenge. This brief covers what is happening around his work in India: AI and illustration, the copyright rules being written for AI, and where public and private money is going.

India
Checked 20 Oct 2026 · every figure linked to its source · next review Jan 2027

01At a glance

INR 2.78T

size of India's media and entertainment sector in 2025, after 9% year-on-year growth1.

The whole media and entertainment sector, not design.
INR 105B

size of India's animation and VFX segment in 2025, after INR 103 billion in 2024, by FICCI-EY's estimates2.

EY estimates, gross of taxes. Animation and VFX only, not all design.
2%

growth of India's animation and VFX segment in 2025, as international studios struggling with profitability made fewer films and series3.

6%

fall in India's animation revenues in 2025, mainly due to a continued slowdown in global commissioning, FICCI-EY says4.

02How AI is reshaping it

Illustrators: the evidence comes from abroad

  • UK survey. In a 2024 Society of Authors survey of its UK members, 26% of illustrators said they had already lost work to generative AI, and 37% said illustrated work had fallen in value (self-reported)5.
  • UK survey. In an early-2025 Association of Illustrators survey in the UK, just over 32% of respondents said they had lost work to AI, reporting an average loss of £9,262 each (self-selected sample)6.
  • Global platform. A peer-reviewed study of freelancers on a large online platform found that after ChatGPT, DALL-E 2 and Midjourney were released, freelancers in highly affected occupations saw reductions in both employment and earnings, with suggestive evidence that top freelancers were hit hardest7.
  • Global employers. WEF's Future of Jobs Report 2025 put graphic designers just outside the top 10 fastest-declining roles to 2030, a reversal from its 2023 edition, which rated them moderately growing8. This is what employers expect, not measured job losses.
  • Global workforce. The ILO's 2025 update estimates that one in four workers worldwide are in an occupation with some degree of generative-AI exposure9. Exposure is not the same as job loss.
All five sources are UK or global. We found no India-specific survey of illustrator work lost to AI.

In India, the data covers social creators

  • Social-media creators. In Adobe's 2026 Creators' Toolkit survey, 85% of Indian social-media creators who use or have tried creative AI said it is integrated or essential to how they work10.
Adobe's is a vendor survey of creators who already use AI tools. It does not describe illustrators, and we found no India survey of how illustrators use AI.

03Where the money is moving

Public money: announced, not spent

  1. Rs 400 crore
    allocated by the Centre to set up the Indian Institute of Creative Technology (IICT) in Mumbai, I&B Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in 202511.
  2. US$1bn
    fund for India's creative economy, announced by Vaishnaw in March 2025 as a public-private partnership12.
  3. Rs 3,268 crore
    planned outlay in Maharashtra's AVGC-XR Policy 2025, approved by the state cabinet with a vision to 205013.

IICT's first campus was inaugurated at the NFDC complex in Mumbai on 18 July 2025, with 17 industry-aligned courses; Vaishnaw said the first batch would educate 300 students14.

These are commitments, allocations and plans, not money spent. We could not verify spending on IICT or the corpus and deployment of the fund. The 300 students is the minister's stated plan, not an enrolment count. The items should not be added together.

Private money and the markets around design

  • AI comics. Dashverse, maker of the AI comics app Dashtoon, with bases in Bengaluru and San Francisco, raised a US$13 million Series A led by Peak XV in August 2025 and says it reaches over 20 million users worldwide15.
  • Design tools. Figma opened a Bengaluru office on 12 November 2025 and says India is its second-largest market by monthly active users16.
  • Animation and VFX. India's animation and VFX segment was about INR 105 billion in 2025, after INR 103 billion in 2024, by FICCI-EY's estimates2.
  • Media overall. India's media and entertainment sector grew 9% year on year to INR 2.78 trillion in 20251. That is the whole sector, not design.
  • Creator economy. An EY report cited by exchange4media valued India's creator economy at Rs 125 billion in 2024 and projected nearly Rs 500 billion by 203017. That is influencer and content revenue, not design services.

04Government moves on AI, copyright and skills

  1. DPIIT. A DPIIT committee's working paper proposes, by majority view, a mandatory blanket licence letting AI developers train on all lawfully accessed copyrighted works with no opt-out. Royalties would be set by a government-appointed committee as a share of revenue from the trained AI system, and collected through a central body (CRCAT)18. It is a proposal, not law, and Nasscom dissented. The comment period has since closed, and no final decision had been announced when this brief was checked.
  2. IT ministry. The ministry notified IT Rules amendments on 10 February 2026, in force from 20 February 2026, requiring permitted synthetically generated (AI) content to be prominently labelled and carry permanent metadata or provenance markers19. The duties fall on platforms and intermediaries. The rules label AI output and say nothing on training AI on artists' work.
  3. Union Budget. Union Budget 2026–27 backs IICT Mumbai to set up AVGC Content Creator Labs in 15,000 secondary schools and 500 colleges20. It is an announcement, not yet delivered.
  4. Delhi High Court. On 24 July 2026 a single judge of the Delhi High Court refused news agency ANI an interim injunction against OpenAI, finding prima facie that storing ANI's content fell within fair dealing under Section 52(1)(a) and that ChatGPT's outputs were not substantially similar to ANI's works21. The case concerns news text, not illustration. ANI has appealed, and the appeal was pending when this brief was checked.

05Trends to watch

Illustrators report lost work, in UK surveys

26% of illustrators in a 2024 Society of Authors survey of UK members said they had lost work to generative AI5. Just over 32% of respondents to a UK Association of Illustrators survey in early 2025 said the same6. We found no comparable survey for India.

Graphic design's outlook has turned

WEF's 2025 report put graphic designers just outside the top 10 fastest-declining roles to 2030, after rating them moderately growing in 20238. In a peer-reviewed study of a large online platform, freelancers in highly affected occupations saw reductions in employment and earnings after ChatGPT, DALL-E 2 and Midjourney were released7. Both are global, not India data.

Copyright for AI is being decided now

India's DPIIT committee has proposed a mandatory licence for AI training with no opt-out18, and no final decision had been announced when this brief was checked. In Delhi, an interim order on news text went OpenAI's way, and ANI has appealed21. Meanwhile, rules in force since February 2026 require AI content to be labelled, but say nothing on training AI on artists' work19. None of these settles how illustrations may be used to train AI in India.

Animation and VFX has stalled in India

India's animation and VFX segment was about INR 105 billion in 2025, after INR 103 billion in 2024, by FICCI-EY's estimates2. The segment grew just 2% in 2025, as international studios made fewer films and series3. Within it, animation revenues fell 6%, mainly due to a continued slowdown in global commissioning, FICCI-EY says4.

06The problems our guests are solving

Creativity, children's books, and the AI challenge
India

EP05Vinayak Varma · Independent

Creativity, children's books, and the AI challenge

Rs 1.08 lakh crore

India's book publishing market in 2024–25, as estimated in a Federation of Indian Publishers report prepared by NielsenIQ BookData, which projects Rs 2 lakh crore by 2030–3122.

This is the whole book market, including educational and textbook publishing, not children's books. The report flags children's books as a growth opportunity, but the coverage we checked gives no figure for them.
26%

of illustrators in a 2024 Society of Authors survey of its UK members said they had already lost work to generative AI (self-reported)5.

UK data. We found no India-specific survey of illustrator work lost to AI.

In India, a DPIIT committee's December 2025 working paper proposes letting AI developers train on all lawfully accessed copyrighted works under a mandatory licence with no opt-out, with royalties collected through a central body (CRCAT)18. The paper says sectors without a copyright society would not be CRCAT members, and non-members would be paid only if they register their works. In our reading, most freelance illustrators in India have no such society. The paper is a proposal, not law, and no final decision had been announced when this brief was checked.

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07Sources

One research agent gathered 42 figures from government, regulator and established data sources. A separate red-team agent then reopened every source, checked each number, its scope and its date, and looked for newer or conflicting data. It kept 31 figures as written, corrected 11 and cut 0. Each figure above links to its source below, with the date it refers to.

  1. FICCI-EY report, via EY India press release, 24 Mar 2026 · 2025 calendar year
  2. FICCI-EY, 'Stories, scale and impact', Mar 2026 · 2025 calendar year (EY estimates, gross of taxes)
  3. FICCI-EY report, via EY India press release, 24 Mar 2026 · 2025 calendar year
  4. FICCI-EY, 'Stories, scale and impact', Mar 2026 · 2025 calendar year
  5. Society of Authors survey, via Design Week, 1 Oct 2025 · UK, 2024 member survey (self-reported)
  6. Association of Illustrators survey, via Design Week, 1 Oct 2025 · UK, early 2025 survey (self-selected)
  7. Hui, Reshef & Zhou, Organization Science, Nov 2024 · Short-run effects, 2022–23; published Nov 2024
  8. World Economic Forum, Jan 2025 · Employer outlook 2025–2030, global
  9. International Labour Organization, 20 May 2025 · 2025 update, global
  10. Adobe / Harris Poll, 19 Aug 2026 · Survey fielded May 2026
  11. Outlook Business, 1 May 2025 · Announced allocation, 2025; spend not verified
  12. IndBiz (Govt of India), 14 Mar 2025 · Announcement, Mar 2025; corpus and deployment not verified
  13. All India Radio News, 16 Sep 2025 · Approved Sep 2025; planned outlay, not spend
  14. All India Radio News, 18 Jul 2025 · Inaugurated 18 Jul 2025; batch size as announced
  15. Z47 (investor), 12 Aug 2025 · Aug 2025 (round); user count is a company claim
  16. Figma blog, Nov 2025 · Nov 2025 (company statement)
  17. EY report, via exchange4media, 6 May 2025 · 2024 estimate; 2030 projection
  18. DPIIT Working Paper on Generative AI and Copyright, Part 1, Dec 2025 · Proposal, Dec 2025; consultation closed Feb 2026; not law
  19. Hogan Lovells client briefing, 13 Feb 2026 · Notified 10 Feb 2026; in force 20 Feb 2026
  20. PIB, 17 Feb 2026 · Budget announcement, Feb 2026 (not yet delivered)
  21. SCC Online Blog, 27 Jul 2026 · Interim order, 24 Jul 2026; appeal pending
  22. FIP / NielsenIQ BookData report, via India CSR, 8 Sep 2026 · FY2024–25 estimate; FY2030–31 projection