At the 25th edition of FICCI Frames 2025 in Mumbai, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting Secretary Sanjay Jaju yesterday urged India’s media and entertainment sector to embrace a dual vision: bold creative expansion and robust safeguards against misinformation and piracy.

His keynote — echoed across major industry platforms and news reports — painted a picture of a nation at the brink of a “golden age of creativity,” while sounding repeated cautions about the fragility of trust in the digital age.

Jaju stressed that freedom of expression, enshrined in Article 19(1) of the Indian Constitution, must not be diluted in the race for eyeballs. He cautioned that clickbait, sensational content, and deliberately misleading narratives pose a threat not just to media credibility, but to social harmony itself.

“The fundamental right of expression … must not get eroded because of monetizing content through clickbait and fake material,” he asserted.

Simultaneously, he raised the alarm about content piracy as it not only impacts creativity and finances, but is also a matter with implications for national security and money laundering. He warned that pirated media often flows through offshore accounts, making enforcement complex and cross-jurisdictional.

To counter it, Jaju said the government has already convened working groups with the Motion Picture Association (of America) and Producers Guild of India, and is building applications to detect and suppress illicit distribution of content.

Jaju said the government’s vision for growth is expansive: India should evolve from consumer of content to global creator, exporting films, animation, gaming, immersive experiences and narrative IP that resonates across borders. He emphasized that only when creators are fairly rewarded — and piracy is brought under control — can this transformation be sustained.

In a concrete push toward innovation, Jaju also announced the WaveX startup accelerator platform under the broader WAVES initiative. Through challenges like Kalaa Setu and Bhasha Setu, the Ministry aims to leverage AI/ML to solve linguistic, production, and distribution challenges—especially in regional and underrepresented languages.

Meanwhile, another media report stated that the second edition of World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES) — the first edition was held as a mega show earlier in May — will now be held in 2027 and as a bi-annual initiative.