Banning games is not the solution: Jayesh Ranjan, Govt of Telangana at Storyboard18 DES 2025
“The gaming sector offers economic potential, but also raises concerns like addiction, underage participation, and fraud. Blanket bans don’t work. While Telangana has had its own bans, I don’t believe that’s the long-term solution,” said Jayesh Ranjan, Special Chief Secretary, Government of Telangana.
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At Storyboard18’s Digital Entertainment Summit (DES) 2025, Jayesh Ranjan, Special Chief Secretary, Government of Telangana, made a strong case against blanket bans on online gaming and instead called for a more nuanced, long-term regulatory approach.
“The gaming sector offers economic potential, but also raises concerns like addiction, underage participation, and fraud. Blanket bans don’t work. While Telangana has had its own bans, I don’t believe that’s the long-term solution,” said Ranjan.
He also highlighted the limitations of the current national regulatory structure and emphasized the need for a more effective model:
“The current national approach of self-regulatory bodies (SRBs) hasn’t worked well either due to elite capture and fragmentation. We are now exploring a third model that balances innovation and consumer protection. It’s not an easy solution, but necessary.”
Telangana’s AVGC Push
In the broader context of India’s growing AVGC (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, and Comics) sector, Ranjan outlined how Telangana has emerged as a national frontrunner by combining early policy innovation, large-scale infrastructure, and industry-integrated skilling.
“Telangana recognized the potential of this sector much earlier than others. After becoming a separate state in 2014, we identified the AVGC sector as a flagship component of our digital economy. We were possibly the first state to come out with a progressive AVGC policy, and we’re now working on version 2.0. This policy was built bottom-up, addressing real challenges faced by the industry,” said Ranjan.
He added that Telangana’s approach has gone beyond policy announcements.
“Beyond policy, we’ve taken five concrete steps—most notably, the construction of the IMAGE Tower in Hyderabad. This is a 1.6 million sq. ft. Grade A facility with ₹1,200 crore of state investment. It’s expected to generate 30,000 jobs and attract over 150 VFX companies.”
Ranjan also highlighted the city’s growing cinematic dominance and its strong pipeline of industry leaders.
“In the last 15 years, 12 of the highest-grossing Indian films came from the South—9 of them from the Telugu industry. Even films from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka often have their post-production and VFX work done in Hyderabad.”
“We also have a significant leadership presence in this sector—about 15–16% of India’s top AVGC company CEOs are from Telangana.”
Telangana, unlike many other states, didn’t wait for AVGC momentum to build organically. It built a cohesive foundation proactively.
“Unlike many states, we didn’t wait for an organic ecosystem to emerge and then react. We preemptively built a cohesive one—combining policy, infrastructure, talent development, and incentives,” said Ranjan.
