Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs L. Murugan has urged young creators to embrace Artificial Intelligence for innovation, while also ensuring that human creativity and responsibility remain at the core of the digital ecosystem.
Addressing the YouTube Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi—held under the theme “Co-creating Impact: India’s Digital Leadership and the Orange Economy”—Murugan stated that AI should be used to empower creators, not to replace them.
According to the YouTube Impact Report released at the summit, YouTube’s creative ecosystem contributed over ₹18,000 crore to India’s GDP in 2025 and supported more than 9.6 lakh full-time-equivalent jobs.
The Minister also highlighted the global reach of Indian digital content, noting that content created in India garners more than 15% of its watch time from audiences abroad. He stated that over 18,000 Indian YouTube channels have crossed the milestone of one million subscribers.
Murugan stated that India’s digital transformation must now move beyond mere usage towards creation, innovation, and intellectual property development. He noted that the country’s growing “Orange Economy”—driven by content, creativity, and culture, has the potential to generate employment, business opportunities, and exports, while also creating a global cultural impact.
The government has introduced initiatives including WAVES, the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT), Create in India Challenges, WAVES Bazaar, MyWAVES and Creator’s Corner to support creative talent and connect creators with markets.
The summit also featured the launch of Create with AI films developed in collaboration with IICT.
Murugan urged young creators to take India’s languages, culture, and stories to global audiences through cinema, music, gaming, animation, digital storytelling, design, crafts, and literature. He stated that the country’s future digital growth would largely depend on what it creates using technology.
Murugan said AI can support creators in writing, translation, editing, music and design, but stressed that human imagination must remain at the heart of creative work.
Murugan also mentioned the provision made in the Union Budget 2026-27 to set up AVGC content-creator laboratories in 15,000 secondary schools and 500 colleges. He stated that the industry would require approximately 2 million professionals by 2030.
The summit was also attended by YouTube India Country Managing Director Gunjan Soni, YouTube Vice President Leslie Miller and Information & Broadcasting Ministry Joint Secretary Senthil Rajan.
(PIB)
