India’s media and entertainment industry should align itself with global markets where bulk of revenue comes from subscriptions instead of advertising, said Anurag Thakur, minister of state for finance.

“The industry is totally dependent on the advertisement (revenue) whereas globally the major income comes from the distribution networks or from the payment that each consumer pays. We must align all of these to accelerate and create new avenues of growth and revenue,” he said Tuesday, talking to industry at FICCI Frames 2020 through video conferencing.

He added that India should have a larger share of the global market of creative goods, which has doubled in value from $215 billion in 2002 to $509 billion in 2015. “While we create volume, we must also create value,” he said.

With work from home becoming a permanent aspect, Thakur said that direct-to-home could benefit immensely in this situation. Media and entertainment industry was likely to emerge as one of the biggest employment generators in post-Covid time, with an equal opportunity for vernacular language segment, original content creation and streaming.

“The creative economy and its industries are high growth sectors if nurtured properly and tremendously boost competitiveness, productivity, sustainable growth, employment, and the export potentials of India,” he said.

The minister of state also pointed to the issues being faced by industry, including intellectual property, copyright digitalisation, skilled workforce, access to distribution networks, among others. However, he asked the industry to create a roadmap for advancement of the industry, and the areas that need government support. “The government will support industry at every step.”

Thakur, who is also the minister of state for corporate affairs, said that Covid pandemic, he said, had unsettled long term plans of nations, redefined labor market, disrupted global supply chains and created uncertainty in every aspect of business.

The Indian government has implemented 20 years of reforms in two weeks through the Atmanirbhar Bharat package, which will have a multiplier effect. He also added that the finance ministry was evaluating the situation regularly and swiftly implementing announcements made so far.

“The Modi government was doing everything possible for India and India Inc. India will sail through these testing times and triumph,” he said.