Ashwini Vaishnaw Inaugurates WAVES Creators’ Corner at India AI Summit

The Minister emphasized that India’s AVGC-XR industry is entering a transformative phase, driven by AI innovation, indigenous talent, and global partnerships.

Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw today inaugurated the WAVES Creators’ Corner on the second day of the India AI Impact Summit 2026, positioning it as a hands-on innovation hub for Artificial Intelligence in the rapidly expanding AVGC-XR (Animation, VFX, Gaming, Comics and Extended Reality) sector.

Conceptualized as a fully operational, live demonstration workspace, the Pavilion showcases real-world AI applications transforming content creation, media production, immersive entertainment and digital storytelling.

Strategic Push for India’s AVGC-XR Ecosystem

During the inauguration, Shri Vaishnaw described the WAVES Creators’ Corner as a strategic extension of the Ministry’s flagship initiatives, including:

• WaveX Startup Accelerator

• Waves Bazaar Global Marketplace

• Create in India Challenges

He conducted an extensive walkthrough of the Pavilion, engaging with emerging entrepreneurs from the WaveX startup cohort and senior representatives from global technology and entertainment leaders such as Adobe, Netflix, Sony, and Amazon.

The Minister emphasized that India’s AVGC-XR industry is entering a transformative phase, driven by AI innovation, indigenous talent, and global partnerships.

51 AI Startups Showcase Breakthrough Solutions

In a significant boost to India’s Media & Entertainment innovation ecosystem, 51 AVGC-XR and Media Tech startups, supported by WaveX, are presenting AI-powered solutions at the Pavilion.

These include startups that emerged as winners of the Bhasha Setu and Kalaa Setu challenges—initiatives aimed at strengthening India’s linguistic diversity and creative economy through technology.

The exhibiting startups are demonstrating solutions ranging from AI-assisted content generation to immersive extended reality experiences and next-generation production tools.

High-Impact Fireside Chat on AI’s Social Transformation

Shri Vaishnaw also participated in a high-profile fireside conversation with Shradha Sharma, Founder & CEO of YourStory, at the Media Lounge.

During the discussion, the Minister highlighted how AI is democratizing opportunity by enabling talented individuals from rural and Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities to build globally competitive startups.

He noted that technology is narrowing access gaps and empowering creators across geographies to participate in the digital economy.

Cutting-Edge AI Innovations on Display

The WAVES Creators’ Corner featured a wide array of advanced AI-driven technologies reshaping the creative industries, including:

• Real-time game development studios

• Prompt-to-cinema live production workflows

• Agentic AI-powered newsroom solutions by AWS and BharatGen, enabling automated editorial operations

• Sarvam’s real-time voice cloning technology

• Indus Chat App for multilingual AI interaction

• 270-degree AI film screenings curated by NFDC

• Sony Research India’s face and voice re-aging technology

• Marker-less motion capture solutions by Whistling Woods International, operable via DSLR or iPhone

These innovations collectively demonstrate India’s ambition to lead in AI-driven creative production and immersive storytelling.

Capacity Building for Future-Ready Talent

The Minister commended the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) for embedding AI tools and workflows into creative education curricula, preparing students for evolving industry demands.

He emphasized that workforce readiness and skill integration are critical to ensuring India remains globally competitive in emerging digital industries.

A Dynamic Platform Throughout the Summit

The WAVES Creators’ Corner will continue to host:

• Expert dialogues

• Filmmaker masterclasses

• Technical workshops

• Global leadership sessions

throughout the India AI Impact Summit 2026.

The initiative reinforces India’s ambition to become a global hub for AI-driven media innovation, while strengthening the country’s AVGC-XR ecosystem as a pillar of the digital economy.