{"id":33541,"date":"2022-12-27T04:59:01","date_gmt":"2022-12-26T23:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=33541"},"modified":"2025-04-19T23:18:45","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T17:48:45","slug":"online-gaming-in-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/online-gaming-in-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Online Gaming in India"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What are the different types of online gaming?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>How big is the online gaming market in India?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What are the challenges faced by online gaming sector?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What are the steps taken by the government to regulate this sector?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>According to an official gazette, the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) is now the nodal ministry regulating online gaming.<\/li>\n<li>MeitY will soon publish rules for online gaming platforms and start public consultation on the regulations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the different types of online gaming?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><strong>e-Sports:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>These are video games that were played privately or on consoles in video game stores in the 1990s, but are currently played online in a structured manner between professional players, either individually or in teams.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Fantasy sports<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>These are games in which the player selects a team of real sports players from several teams and earns points based on how well the players perform in real life. <strong>For example, <\/strong>Dream11.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Online casual games:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>These could be <strong>skill-based<\/strong>, where the outcome is heavily impacted by mental or physical skill or <strong>chance-based<\/strong>, where the outcome is heavily influenced by some randomised activity, such as rolling a die.<\/li>\n<li>A game of chance may be considered as gambling if players bet money or anything of monetary value.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How big is the online gaming market in India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The online gaming industry grew exponentially during the Covid-19 pandemic.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The revenue of the Indian mobile gaming industry is expected to exceed $1.5 billion in 2022, and is estimated to reach $5 billion in 2025.<\/li>\n<li>The industry in the country grew at a CAGR of 38% between 2017-2020, as opposed to 8% in China and 10% in the US.<\/li>\n<li>India\u2019s percentage of new paying users (NPUs) in gaming has been the fastest growing in the world for two consecutive years, at 40% in 2020 and reaching 50% in 2021.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the challenges faced by online gaming sector?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3>\n<strong>Lack of regulatory oversight:\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Online gaming exists in a regulatory grey area and there is no comprehensive legislation with respect to its legality or its boundaries.<\/li>\n<li>Also, there is currently no regulatory framework to govern various aspects of online gaming companies such as &#8211;\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>Having a grievance redressal mechanism, Protection of data and intellectual property rights, and Prohibiting misleading advertisements.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Online gaming is a state subject (Under Entry 34, List II &#8216;Gambling&#8217; and &#8216;Betting&#8217;)<\/strong>:\u00a0<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>However, state governments have stated that it is extremely difficult for them to implement some restrictions, such as geo-blocking specific apps or websites within their state&#8217;s borders.<\/li>\n<li>Also, state governments (unlike the Centre), lack the necessary blocking authority to issue blocking orders for offshore betting sites<strong>.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>There is also concern that legislation passed in one state may not be relevant in another, resulting in inconsistencies across the country.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Societal concerns:\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A number of reported incidences of persons losing big amounts of money on online games, resulting to <strong>suicides <\/strong>in various parts of the country.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the steps taken by the government to regulate this sector?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>An inter-ministerial task force was set up by the MeitY to propose contours of a national-level legislation to regulate online gaming. It submitted its report in October 2022.\n<ul>\n<li>It suggested that MeitY may act as the nodal ministry to regulate online gaming, except for the e-sports category on which the Department of Sports can take the lead.<\/li>\n<li>Among other things, it also recommended:\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>the creation of a central regulatory body for the sector,\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>clearly defining what games of skill and chance are and\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>bringing online gaming under the purview of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In December 2022, the Union Minitry of Finance announced that the online gaming would attract 28 percent Goods and Services Tax (GST).<\/li>\n<li>Recently, the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) has been made the nodal ministry regulating online gaming.<\/li>\n<li>These decisions are in line with the government\u2019s initiative to push for the growth of the animation, visual effects, gaming and comics (AVGC) sector and making India a global hub for online gaming.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) How big is the online gaming industry in India?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>India&#8217;s gaming market, which stood at $2.6 billion in 2022, is expected to grow at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 27 per cent to reach $8.6 billion by 2027.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) Who regulates online gaming in India?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) is now the nodal ministry regulating online gaming.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/technology\/tech-news-technology\/meity-becomes-nodal-ministry-for-online-gaming-8347529\/#:~:text=According%20to%20an%20official%20gazette,content%20or%20services%20are%20possible%E2%80%9D.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>MeitY becomes nodal ministry for online gaming<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-sci-tech\/india-online-gaming-industry-rules-laws-task-force-8197042\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Indian Express<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbctv18.com\/finance\/online-gaming-attracts-28-gst-government-tells-parliament-15465291.htm%20%20%20https:\/\/www.livemint.com\/news\/india\/online-gaming-industry-for-28-gst-on-gross-gaming-revenue-not-on-entry-amount-11670493951366.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>CNBC<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Online Gaming in India highlights opportunities, challenges of online gaming in India and steps taken to regulate it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":33542,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}