New Delhi: Information & Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has approved the creation of the Live Events Development Cell (LEDC), a single window mechanism to facilitate the organization of large-scale live cultural events in India. This development comes at a time when the live events industry is worth ₹ 20,861 crore in 2024, and is expected to grow by 15% every year.
India’s live events industry has been seeing a rapid growth, with leading global artistes like Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendes, Martin Garrix and Wiz Khalifa performing tours in India. A report by FICCI and EY said that there were almost 70-80 large-scale concerts in India, reflecting the great demand for such experiences by the primarily well-educated Gen Z crowd.
This development comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi acknowledged the potential of the live entertainment sector at the WAVES summit in May, especially as such concerts have helped boost tourism in Tier 2 and 3 towns like Vishakhapatnam, Shillong and Guwahati, which witnessed triple-digit growth in visitors for such events. According to estimates, these events have the potential to support over 10 million jobs across hospitality, transport and other sectors, emerging as a leading revenue-generating opportunity.
Unfortunately, this has also led to the police, municipality authorities and security teams to make unreasonable demands from event organizers, holding up approvals or permissions for free tickets.
“Most of the authorities look at us as ‘free and easy’ money, as we’re not locals and their cooperation for these events is crucial. Most of our time goes in convincing them to grant permission, even as they continue to demand free tickets to do so,” an event organizer, who requested to remain anonymous, said.
The I&B Ministry’s LEDC aims at offering organisers a single window clearance for such events, bringing together representatives from the Central and State governments, industry associations and event organisers on a common platform. Though this is a step in the right direction, its effectiveness remains to be seen.
