The Union government is taking fresh steps to strengthen the country’s creator economy. It has now launched the pilot phase of the ‘Gems of India’ Challenge, which is a programme of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) to identify, nurture and promote grassroots digital creators from across the country.
The initiative aims to promote the emerging ‘Orange Economy’ in the country, and builds upon MyWAVES, the citizen creator platform under WAVES OTT.
The government-owned OTT platform was launched to enable citizens to create, upload and share original content. It has now become the foundation for the Gems of India Challenge, under which creators share unique stories from their districts through authentic digital storytelling.
Chanchal Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, said, “Every district of India has a story waiting to be told, and Gems of India gives our creators the platform to tell it. This is as much about celebrating our youth’s creativity as it is about celebrating the extraordinary diversity of our districts.”
As part of the Challenge, creators are encouraged to showcase the culture, heritage, tourism, traditions, history and distinctive achievements of their districts.
The Pilot Phase will cover the states and UTs of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Goa, and Ladakh.
To participate in the challenge, creators can submit videos of 1 to 3 minutes in duration via the MyWAVES section on the WAVES OTT platform. The submission window for the Pilot Phase will open on August 1, 2026, and will remain open until August 31, 2026.
The Ministry has also partnered with Google’s YouTube and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, to amplify the initiative. The tech giants will help mobilise their creator communities and extend the outreach of the challenge across their networks as part of the partnership.