Reimagining A Creative Bharat That Welds Together Culture, Innovation, Entrepreneurship

By Rishabh Mookherjee

The third edition of the Creative Economy Forum (CEF) opened last week at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) in the national capital, bringing together some of India’s most influential creative thinkers, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and innovators.

The event underscored a shared vision of ‘Creative Bharat’–an economy where culture, innovation, and entrepreneurship converge to drive sustainable growth.

Supported by the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the Ministry of Tourism, and the AI Impact Summit of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the two-day forum at IGNCA, located at Janpath, served as a flagship platform for India’s creative and cultural industries.

With IGNCA as the venue partner, CEF 2025 featured high-level dialogues, keynote addresses, and spotlight sessions exploring the intersections of film, fashion, design, art, technology, and policy. This year’s edition centred around the theme “Building Creative Bharat.

“CEF was founded on three key pillars — policy, business and creativity — and this season continues to strengthen those links,” said Supriya Suri, Founder of the Creative Economy Forum and a film director-producer. “Through CEF, we aim to showcase the business of creativity and highlight India’s expanding global influence in the creative economy.”

Echoing the sentiment, Harman Baweja, actor, producer, and entrepreneur, noted, “India’s creative sector is on the brink of exponential growth. Today, creative entrepreneurs are building intellectual properties with tangible commercial value. CEF provides the perfect space to share, collaborate, and nurture this wave of creative entrepreneurship.”

Adding an industry perspective, Avarna Jain, Chairperson of the RPSG Group, said, “India’s creative economy is a force multiplier for innovation, cultural diplomacy and employment. Platforms like CEF foster dialogues that attract both recognition and investment into the creative ecosystem.”

Among the notable voices at the forum were Sanjeev Sanyal, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister; Dr Sachchidanand Joshi of IGNCA; Rajat Sharma of India TV; Amish Tripathi; Rina Dhaka; Rajiv Chilaka; and several others, alongside international experts such as Gayle McPherson and Marie McPartlin from the UK.

Established in 2022, the Creative Economy Forum has quickly emerged as India’s leading platform for strengthening the country’s creative and cultural sectors, bridging the gap between government, academia, and industry to position India as a global creative powerhouse. (ANI)