National Centre of Excellence to be set up in Mumbai: IIMC DG

The National Centre of Excellence (NCOE) in animation, visual effects, gaming and comics will come up in Mumbai in 2018-19, which will be the biggest in Asia, the IIMC Director General KG Suresh said here today.

The NCOE will come up on the 20-acre land in the Film City in the country's financial capital on the PPP (public private partnership) model, the director general of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) told a press conference.

"Maharashtra government has already given the 20-acre land for the purpose. NCOE will be the joint venture between the IIMC and FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry)," Suresh said.
 

Observing that the animation sector is growing fast in the country, he said animation and gaming are new emerging technologies in media.

"According to a study by the FICCI and KPMG, other than the conventional media, new job opportunities will open up in these sectors for media persons. Keeping this in view, the NCOE is planned in Mumbai," Suresh said.

Deputy Registrar of IIMC, Delhi, PV Krishna Raja told PTI that a fund of Rs 167.5 crore has been alloted for the project and the NBCC, a PSU, will construct the project building.

"The NCOE was announced by Prime minister Narendra Modi during his budget meeting," said Raja.

Meanwhile, Suresh said the IIMC is in the process of becoming a deemed university.

"The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has given its clearance. Under the plan, all the media institutions under the I&B ministry will come under the 'IIMC deemed university' including FTII (Film and Television Institute of India), Pune," he said.

Suresh said IIMC will launch the firstever post-graduate diploma in Marathi journalism from its western regional campus located in Amravati.

"The introduction of the dedicated course in Marathi language is expected to give a boost to Marathi journalism. It is aimed at providing the skilled manpower to the burgeoning regional language media in the state.

"IIMC also imparts Odia language journalism from its campus in Dhenkanal. From the coming academic session, its Kottayam campus in Kerala will be offering a Malayalam journalism course," the DG said.