Telangana IT Secy Jayesh Ranjan: Gamifying education holds tremendous potential for the e-gaming sector

At the launch of Building Up the E-Gaming Ecosystem of India and the Influence of Smartphones report, several dignitaries shared their insights into the e-gaming and e-sports sector
The launch event | (Pic: Edexlive)
The launch event | (Pic: Edexlive)

When the e-gaming industry might seem like all fun and games, the Government of Telangana's Principal Secretary of I&C and IT, Jayesh Ranjan pointed out the tremendous educational opportunities it offers, especially in the context of the pandemic where most of the students are devoid of a typical classroom experience which is now limited to a screen. "I've seen many start-ups gamifying learning. And since gaming is seen largely as a recreational hobby, education can lend it the social acceptance that it needs," he implored while speaking at the virtual launch of the report Building Up the E-Gaming Ecosystem of India and the Influence of Smartphones on Tuesday.

This meticulous report was compiled by IAMAI, OnePlus and RedSeer. While admitting that the regulatory system has been quite hostile towards the sector, but when more value is added, the tides might turn. In the same vein, he harked back to the Telangana Gaming (Second Amendment) Ordinance, 2017, that imposed a ban on online gambling and betting to admit that a complete ban is definitely not a solution. "A system of checks and balances needs to be in place along with regulations. The industry needs to play a major role as well," he implored, dropping a reminder that e-gaming, along with animation VFX and multimedia, is one of the key focus areas for the state government.

Saurabh Gaur, Joint Secretary (Electronics), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India (GoI) was also at the launch and he went on to highlight GoI’s three focus areas — keen support to start-ups in the sector, hardware manufacturing opportunities, like consoles, supported by effective schemes and measures and extending support to the innovation happening around AR and VR with the help of broader schemes with incentives. He also reminded us that India's first Centre of Excellence (CoE) for gaming, VFX, AI and so on, IMAGE, was inaugurated in Hyderabad just last year. During the questions fielded by Kanishka Mohan, Associate Partner, RedSeer, the Joint Secretary also said, "With regard to Digital India 2.0, we are moving beyond individual solutions and looking at an enterprise structure where there will be the emergence of nationwide platforms for different sectors."
 
Also joining the discussion was Navnit Nakra, Vice-President and Chief Strategy Officer for OnePlus India and Rajen Vagadia, VP and President, Qualcomm India. The former said that as a company, OnePlus relies on community feedback and some of the questions they have received are battery life and short charging time, so that sophisticated multiplayer games can be played on these devices. Then there is the question of future-ready gaming devices that support 5G.
 
Rajen Vagadia reminded us that gaming has done a lot in terms of making people feel connected across geographies, especially during the pandemic. "In the last 12 years, we had to update our GPUs (Graphics Processing Unit) over 700 times, that's the demand coming in from the consumers," he says. He also said that with their endeavors like Snapdragon Conquest, they are attempting to not just understand but also nurture e-sports and ensure that it is seen as a field that can be taken up professionally as well.
 
A few interesting points from the report:
- 40% of the gamers start microtransactions or in-app purchases within two weeks of starting the game
- Hardcore gamers spend 4x the amount of time and money than casual gamers
- A few games that have been downloaded the most in India are Ludo King, PUBG, Free Fire, Candy Crush Saga, Carrom Pool and more
- The projected growth of esports in India in 2025 is expected to be $157 million
- As much as 70% of people's time is spent in streaming videos and gaming

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