FEAI meets with MoS MEITY Rajeev Chandrasekhar, submits Policy Paper for esports in India

New Delhi: The Federation of Electronic Sports Associations of India (FEAI), the apex national body for Esports in India met with Minister of State Electronics & Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar and submitted its Policy Paper for esports under the Government of India’s recent push for India’s AVGC.

The policy paper seeks to facilitate a policy-centered esports outlook that aims to address India’s unique definition for esports, which not only welcomes conventional global esports outlook but most importantly promotes India’s indigenous talent and narrative. The report also propounds a strong talent development ecosystem that covers the spectrum of talent, businesses, job creation, education, and revenue generation for India with regional centres of excellence.

Vaibhav Dange, Founding Member, Federation of Electronic Sports Associations India said, “In guidance of the Hon’ble PMO towards India’s emerging AVGC sector, we are thankful for Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar ji to have met us and understand FEAI’s perspective on an effective policy intervention, anchored by the Government of India, towards formalisation of the Esports and allied industries, including AVGC, to create an enabling ecosystem to support the Indian industry.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, accepted the paper and commended the efforts of FEAI in creating a policy-centered esports outlook. He said the learnings from the policy paper of FEAI will be useful for building a larger outlook by MeitY towards the AVGC sector, said an FEAI release.

India is amongst the top 5 mobile gaming markets in the world. In the next 2 years, this sector will be worth Rs 3 lac crore. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi has time and again highlighted, India should lead the digital gaming sector, develop games inspired from its culture, folk tales and this is the genesis of the idea of FEAI of taking India's ideas, definitions, and athletes in a rightful manner to the global centre stage, FEAI added.

There are over 1.7 million esports users presently in India, and some of these are professional athletes who have won international laurels for the country. Esports is set to be a medal sport in the Asian Games 2022, it will also be played as an exhibition event during the Commonwealth Games 2022 and FEAI hopes could be soon inducted in the Olympics once the International Olympic Committee determines the format.