How to really install a creative economy

This week, there was considerable focus on influencers who shared their ideas about making India a 'creative economy' at the inaugural World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit. India, of course, is already a creative economy. But one reckons what the speakers were talking about was to optimise the country's creative industries, both monetarily as well as in terms of enhancing India's soft power globally. The concept of 'creative economy' was developed in 2001 by John Howkins - reformatted in 2013 by Pedro Buitrago and Ivan Duque (the latter, a former Colombian president) as 'orange economy' - to describe economic systems where value is based on 'novel imaginative qualities rather than the traditional resources of land, labour and capital'. While India's advantages in this sphere - rich story-telling legacy, huge pool of consumers and creators, tech-ableness - are much touted, focus could be given to four key ingredients that make for a steady, hyper-fertile 'dream factory'.

One, freedom - to create, without patrons, guardians or regulators constantly looking over the shoulders to ensure that the proverbial mob approves, or doesn't disapprove, a creation. Two, a genuine critical culture that reviews, critiques, applauds and elaborates on the many contents created. Not just saying Movie X is great and Novel Y is bad, but why they are so, without any statutory push or pull.

Three, patronage. All content - 'art' or otherwise - needs financial food. A culture where creative arts and sciences are seen as investments, with its own set of RoIs, has to be inculcated. And, most importantly, four, putting the individual on top. The individual creator, armed with the three other conditions, can be both incubator and brand ambassador of an economy where productions of creativity can thrive, minus the dead weight of a soviet-type ideological collective.