By Maitphang Syiem
Consider the orange, it is a fruit that demands effort before it yields its rewards. You have to peel it, deal with the sticky zest, and navigate the occasional rogue seed before you get to the juice. Historically, the colour orange has been the bridge between the red of raw passion and the yellow of pure intellect. In ancient Egypt, it adorned the tombs of pharaohs to signify eternity; in India, it represents the sacred quest for knowledge; and for Native Americans, it symbolizes communal kinship. But in 2013, two gentlemen from Colombia, Felipe Buitrago Restrepo and Iván Duque Márquez, decided that “Orange” was also the perfect brand for an economic powerhouse: the Orange Economy. Published through the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), their manual defined it as a group of linked activities where ideas are the raw materials and intellectual property is the final product.
Today, we aren’t just squeezing oranges, we are squeezing our brains. Welcome to the age of “Mind-factures” where the intangible symbolic value of a pixel far exceeds its mere utility. In this context it is obvious that there will be a strong nexus between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Orange Economy which may resonate like a first date between a poet and a calculator, awkward at first, but potentially life changing. In the realm of AVGC (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, and Comics), AI is not just a tool, it is a “force multiplier”. While some fear that AI will replace the creator, however the analytical truth is that AI excels in pattern recognition, not imagination. It can generate thousands of ad variations in seconds, but it cannot define the emotional “meaning” or cultural resonance of a story.
We are entering a “Synthetic Renaissance,” where human-AI symbiosis allows us to move from being a “Creator Factory” of cheap outsourced labour to a “Creator Headquarters” where we own the original Intellectual Property (IP). The four pillars of this new world are clear, Culture (our unique heritage), Creativity (our human talent), Technology (the AI engine), and Intellectual Property (our sovereign wealth). Globally, creative industries already generate trillions of dollars of revenue and a significant share of world GDP, while relying more on talent and technology than on smokestacks and mines. If the Orange Economy is about ideas, artificial intelligence is the new electricity running through its circuits where every frame, texture and storyline is a “Mind-factured” product, shaped increasingly by AI-powered tools. Properly governed, AI doesn’t replace the Orange Economy; it supercharges it. The Orange Economy thrives on Culture, Creativity, Technology and Intellectual Property and mature Orange Economy sits when it is culturally rooted, creatively bold, technologically fluent and legally protected.
The Union Budget for 2026-27 has signalled that India is treating imagination as infrastructure. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s announcement to establish AVGC Content Creator Labs in 15,000 secondary schools and 500 colleges is a masterstroke in democratizing creative digital skills. Supported by the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) in Mumbai, this initiative aims to prepare a workforce of 2 million professionals by 2030.
Critically, this budget looks beyond the able-bodied by supporting the state-run ALIMCO to scale up the production of prosthetics using AI and R&D, the government is ensuring that Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan) are not just beneficiaries of technology, but participants in the economy. In a pixel-driven world, a physical barrier is no longer a professional barrier. Whether you are in a wheelchair or a remote village, if you can manipulate a pixel, you can participate in global value chains.
For our unemployed youth and school dropouts, the Orange Economy offers a unique escape from the “wage labour” trap. AVGC is a sector where portfolios matter more than pedigrees. A dropout with a talent for 3D modelling or digital storytelling can find a sustainable livelihood that traditional manufacturing cannot offer. It is suggested that a “Stackable Learning” where NSQF-aligned micro-credentials allows youth to earn industry ready certifications without needing a degree be looked into. We need Apprentice Programmes where young creators can avail stipends to sustain their skilling or upskilling. AI powered tools will lower entry barriers by reducing the need for expensive hardware and long production cycles, allowing young creators to prototype short films, game levels or comics from basic devices and cloud software. With structured mentoring, online communities and micro-credentials, even those who left formal education can build credible careers as freelance animators, indie game developers or digital storytellers.
The Government of Meghalaya, under “Mission 10,” aims to reach a $10 billion economy by 2028. But how do we fund the creative gold rush? We need a data-driven decision-making approach and to turn this potential into a pipeline, Meghalaya in particular needs sector-specific incubation and apprenticeship programmes. We should strategically set up AVGC Hubs or Clusters in every district. This isn’t just about computers; it’s about making skills accessible to all genders and backgrounds. These hubs can host Train-the-Trainer (TTT) programmes, ensuring that local teachers become mentors for project-based learning. By fostering collaborations with industry giants (as IICT Mumbai is doing), we can open up business models where the IP ownership remains with our local youth and if collectively done right these structures will give unemployed youth especially dropouts a ladder from curiosity to craft to cash flow. Having said, the real challenge will not be scarcity of content or resources but precision in investment.
Every part of Meghalaya is a masterpiece of natural placement and the land itself is asking us to grow creatively and sustainably and as reported, Orange Economy aligns perfectly with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Environmentally well managed Creative industries will potentially have low carbon footprint (SDGs 11, 12,13, 14, 15), promote gender equality (SDG 5), Education (SDG 4), Decent Work (SDG 8) Innovation (SDG 9) and Reduced inequalities (SDG 10).
Every hill in Meghalaya has a story to tell and, in the Orange Economy, stories are the most valuable export. From the whistled lullabies (Jingrwai Iawbei) of Kongthong to the weaving stories of Eri silk from Umden and many more, we have living museums that can be scaled into global tourism products through digital storytelling. We don’t need to cut down our forests to grow; we need to digitize our folklore. However, this requires a collective political drive that treats creativity as a serious career pathway, not a niche hustle. We must bridge the digital divide by pushing digital literacy, last mile digital connectivity and if supported with AI tools, digital infrastructure, fair IP frameworks and a genuine, sustained political commitment. In this manner an orange ecosystem can grow in a way that protects forests and rivers even as it exports films, games and experiences.
We are standing at the edge of a Synthetic Renaissance. For the creative youth of Meghalaya, the transition to an Orange Economy is not just about jobs; it is about identity and in the age of “mind-factures,” the most valuable factory is the human imagination, and Meghalaya’s hills are already humming with production. The question is whether we choose to just admire the orange, or finally peel, process and pixel it into a future that is vibrant, inclusive, sustainable, eco-centric and unmistakably our own. The juice is worth the squeeze. As the economist John Howkins famously said “Creativity is not new and neither is economics, but what is new is the nature and extent of the relationship between them”.
(The writer is a Geo-spatial Technology Expert & Citizen Science practitioner)
