IICT, Netflix announce scholarships for 100 students across six Creative Technology programmes
Babushahi Bureau
Mumbai (Maharashtra), August 26, 2026: The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) and Netflix have announced a scholarship initiative for 100 students and working professionals, offering financial assistance of up to 80 per cent for six professional programmes in animation, visual effects, gaming and comics.
The initiative covers two one-year diploma programmes and four six-month certificate programmes, providing students across India an opportunity to gain industry-oriented skills in the rapidly expanding creative technology sector.
The programmes covered under the scholarship include diplomas in Interactive Comics & Sequential Arts and Visual Effects Mastery. The four certificate programmes are in Virtual Art Department Content Creation, Media Tech Workflow, Art of Character Animation, and E-Sports & Gaming Management.
The announcement follows a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos on August 5, 2026. During the meeting, Modi highlighted India’s long-standing storytelling tradition and its large pool of creative talent, while emphasising the country’s potential to emerge as a global hub for content creation.
The Netflix India Storytelling Initiative was subsequently launched to strengthen India’s creative talent pipeline by developing industry-relevant skills across the Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) ecosystem, a key component of the country’s emerging creative economy.
Industry-Focused Curriculum
The curriculum for IICT’s Visual Effects Mastery and Media Tech Workflow programmes has been developed in line with contemporary industry practices and global standards, with inputs from Netflix.
Chanchal Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting and Chairman of the IICT Board, said India’s creative economy was undergoing significant transformation as technology changed the way stories were produced.
He said IICT was established to bridge the gap between India’s large creative talent pool and the evolving requirements of the global AVGC-XR industry, adding that partnerships with leading industry players would help bring practical industry knowledge into academic programmes.
IICT CEO Dr Vishwas Deoskar said the collaboration would ensure that the skills taught at the institute remain aligned with changing industry requirements. He said Netflix’s involvement would contribute to curriculum development, professional workflows and the standards expected from students entering the industry.
According to Deoskar, combining structured education, industry inputs and financial assistance would help create a stronger talent pipeline for India’s growing creative economy.
Munjal Shroff, Chairman of the FICCI AVGC-XR Forum, said the FICCI-IICT-Netflix collaboration represented a move towards industry-aligned talent development and would contribute to creating a future-ready workforce for India’s AVGC-XR sector.
IICT is the national centre of excellence for the Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics and Extended Reality (AVGC-XR) sector. It was established by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting in partnership with the Government of Maharashtra, FICCI and CII.
The institute currently operates from the NFDC Complex on Pedder Road, Mumbai, while its permanent 10-acre campus is being developed at Film City, Goregaon.
Details regarding the scholarship application process and the six programmes are available on the official IICT website.