India director to have animation academies in Dubai, Kathmandu
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India director to have animation academies in Dubai, Kathmandu
IANS Monday, May 17, 2004
NEW DELHI: Indian film director Ketan Mehta's animation academy plans
to set up overseas centres in several cities, including Dubai,
Kathmandu, Colombo and Bangkok, to cater to the rising demand for
skilled animators.
The three-year-old Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (MAAC) is
producing scores of trained personnel to meet both domestic and
overseas demand for animators in an industry that is now worth an
estimated Rs. 20 billion ($ 440 million).
According to the National Association of Software and Services
Companies (NASSCOM), the number of professionals employed in this
industry has doubled from 15,000 in 1999-2000 to over 30,000 in
2002-03.
The numbers are still growing with India emerging as an outsourcing
hub for overseas film, television and games software production and
computer graphics, said Naveen Gupta, vice president of MAAC.
"While we are firming up plans to raise the number of our institutes
in the country from 30 to 50 in a year, we hope to set up an institute
in Dubai's Knowledge Village, which is part of the Dubai Media City,
this year," Gupta told IANS.
MAAC has already completed the survey on the potential of setting up
an institute in Dubai and Kathmadu.
"In Dubai we are already in talks to set up our own institute with an
investment of around Rs. 2.5 million ($550,000) but in other places
like Kathmandu we are planning either a joint venture or the franchise
route as we have done at many places in the country," said Gupta.
Gupta sees great potential in catering to the demand in the entire
Middle East through the academy in Dubai.
Within the country, MAAC is planning to start around half a dozen
academies this month, including three in Bangalore.
According to Gupta, what sets apart MAAC is its focus on 3D animation
and visual effects for television serials, advertising and cinema.
MAAC has 2,000 students on its rolls.
Backed by the Maya Entertainment, "our institute is able to provide
hands-on experience. In fact, 80 percent of the animators in our group
are students trained at MAAC," he said.
Given the increasing number of serials like Sone Pari and Gharwali
Upparwali where animation is widely being used, Gupta sees a growing
demand for trained animators, particularly with foreign offers
flowing.
The Maya Group is among the 30 top firms striving to bag a slice of
the growing animation industry that is estimated to reach Rs. 600
billion by 2008 requiring a workforce of 500,000 animators.
The Maya Academy, with its interests ranging from film production to
providing animation and special effects for films, advertisements and
the growing number of television serials, is currently in the race to
bag the special effects contract for the India/UK production 'The
Rising' being directed by Ketan Mehta.
"Indian companies are fast covering the gap in standards vis-à-vis
overseas counterparts. In the last six months our company has had to
increase its capacity of trained personnel four fold, such is the
demand," said Biswajit Das, zonal manager, north, of MAAC.
Every serial, where fantasy or special effects are key elements, can
give employment to around 100 animators and technicians.
"Though the Indian animation industry is still at a nascent stage, a
lot of companies are at par with global majors and are pitching for
work overseas through various animation fairs. Many are doing test
animation for overseas clients," said Gupta, hinting at a major deal
for Maya in the near future.
gulf....@gmail.com
As the sixth largest country in the world in terms of population, Pakistan has an ever-expanding web base which currently stands at 22 million users, with 8 million now on Facebook.
With such a wide array of currently undeveloped markets to compete in, the need for online stores will only increase over the course of time. When one further considers the high cost of establishing a traditional brick-and-mortar store, one realizes the advantages to which online entrepreneurs are privy.
The Internet industry dynamics have also changed quite dramatically, with 2012 being a possible turning point for rapid growth. As a result of heavy investment from three major players — the largest courier company in Pakistan, a major retail outlet and one of the largest venture builders globally — a string of competitors have started to emerge.
Early Days
Building Internet businesses has traditionally not come easily to Pakistan. Our first e-commerce venture began in 2001 with the establishment of Abid Beli’s Beliscity.pk. Although initially started as an information website for mobiles and computers, it soon turned into an e-commerce store as a result of its growing popularity.
You might then expect this venture to have turned out a success story, with Beliscity ending up being the equivalent to Amazon in Pakistan. Unfortunately this was not the case. Owing to many complications and troubles, not only was Beliscity forced to changed its name to Gulf Dealz Http://www.gulfdealz.com , but it also fell into obscurity competing with countless other players in the online retail arena.
Arguably Pakistan’s greatest Internet success story is Rozee.pk. Founded in 2007 by Monis Rahman as an add-on to his main business, Rozee has grown to become Pakistan’s premier portal for jobs. This journey was also not an easy one at all. When Monis was trying to raise funds through foreign investors in the second half of 2007, Pakistan was in the news almost daily with images of the bombing due to Benazir Bhutto’s arrival and her subsequent assassination.
3 Hot E-Commerce Startups to Watch in Pakistan
Those, however, were just the early days and the environment seems much more conducive to starting e-commerce ventures now. Last year will go on record as a landmark year for Internet businesses in Pakistan as three very different and important companies launched their own e-commerce portals:
• TCS Connect is the online portal of TCS Couriers, Pakistan’s most reliable and wide-reaching logistics company. In May 2012, TCS launched its online shopping portal, TCS Connect, which has products like computers, mobile phones, home and kitchen appliances and even automobile accessories.
• Labels eStore is the online store for Pakistan’s largest high-end fashion outlets. With its product lines covering the biggest fashion designers in Pakistan, it targets high-end consumers in the local market and the Pakistani diaspora across the world.
• Daraz.pk represents the fashion vertical of the global venture developers, Rocket Internet. The company did not enter into our local online market arena at the behest of Pakistani entrepreneurs who sought funding, but rather as a ‘top-down’ decision by Oliver Samwer to capture the developing Pakistani market in the long-term.
The establishment and subsequent success of these and other businesses have led to a greater focus on e-commerce sites. They may be other clothing brands expanding their businesses online, logistics companies either starting online stores themselves or providing tools and consultancy for brick-and-mortar retail owners to start a digital side to their existing businesses, or young entrepreneurs themselves wanting to get into this nascent business.
Whatever the case, online stores are here to stay in Pakistan and will only attain a larger customer base going forward.
The success of Rocket Internet’s Daraz has also made other venture capital firms take notice and start making initial contact with local players in the industry to fund entrepreneurs.
Future Outlook, Untapped Space
With this hive of activity, the future for Pakistan’s e-commerce and Internet industry has a positive outlook. Local entrepreneurs should seize this opportunity to capitalize on the open market space. The diagram below illustrates the vast amount of untouched market space, ready and waiting to be capitalized:
Disclosure: Adam Dawood is the founding partner of DYL Ventures, a Pakistan-centric venture capital and consultancy firm. One of the first employees of Daraz.pk and its product manager, Adam has now returned to the family business, DYL Motorcycles, and is looking to the future in both the motorcycle and e-commerce industry. You can find him on Twitter as @adamdawood. Please see our ethics statement for further information