India’s online gaming sector

Why in news?

• The Prime Minister’s vision to establish India as a prominent global gaming hub has received renewed attention as he engaged with seven of the top gamers in the country.

India’s online Gaming Industry

• India is one of the largest gaming markets in the world. It is predominantly a home-grown start-up ecosystem growing at 27% Compound annual growth rate (CAGR). 
• The Indian gaming industry’s revenuestands at 1 billion dollars in the financial year 2023. 
• It is widely estimated that AI and online gaming can add up to $300 billionto India’s GDP by 2026-27. 

Potential of Gaming Industry

• The sector attracts significant foreign and domestic investmentsalong with direct and indirect employment. Leveraging India’s IT prowess, the industry holds natural potential for India.
• The size of the global gaming industry crossed $300 billion in 2021,still the online gaming segment in India constitutes1% of the global online gaming revenue.

Government Initiatives to Promote Online Gaming

• Digital Gaming Research Initiative:The government has started a digital gaming research initiative, and the SERB-INAE Conclave was organized recently to support the Indian digital gaming research space and industry.
• The Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) of the Department of Science and Technology has identified three main directions for its Digital Gaming Research Initiative;
  • R&D in learning and leisure gaming platforms,
  • immersive game prototypes with an emphasis on Indian culture and values, and
  • a collaborative technical design process, which was made by SERB Game Labs.
• AVGC Promotion Task Force: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has established the Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comic (AVGC) Promotion Task Force.
  • The government recognizes that the Indian AVGC industry has the ability to carry the “Make in India” and “Brand India” banners.

Regulation of Industry

• At present, there is no uniform federal law regulating the skill gaming industry in India.
• The Public Gambling Act, 1867 and Prize Competitions Act, 1955 currently govern India’s online gaming industry at the federal level while varying legislation in different Indian states supersede these Acts.
• This is because state governments in India are empowered by the constitution to legislate on gambling. 
• Recently the government decision to appoint the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) as the nodal ministryfor online gaming in India has finally provided legitimacy to the sector.
• The government will shortly draftregulations for intermediaries in the online gambling industry and initiate a public consultation process.

Challenges

• The rise of online gaming has brought many concerns such as addiction, mental illness, suicides, financial frauds, privacy and data security
• The situation is further exacerbated by the growth ofillegal offshore gambling and betting markets wherein the volume of digital transactions provides fertile ground for financial malpractices.
• No mechanism exists for individuals to differentiate between legitimate gaming platforms and illegal gambling/betting sites.
  • In addition, in the absence of a specialized regulatory authority, enforcement is lacking.
• The Goods and Services Tax Councildecided to enforce a tax rate of 28% on the total face value of bets which was earlier 18%.
  • The measure has raised concerns about the industry’s sustainability in the long term and its consequential impact on jobs being created in this sector.

Way Ahead

• India stands at a distinctive juncture to emerge as a prominent global gaming hub. Also India has the advantage of tapping its rich cultural heritage (stories, legends, and folklore).
• As perceptions about gaming as a viable career option evolve, India stands to benefit from a growing pool of talented individuals driving innovation and pushing boundaries in the gaming landscape.
• By fostering an enabling environment for skill gaming, promoting diversity and inclusion, and capitalizing on its rich cultural narratives, India can not only realize its vision of a $1-trillion digital economy but also shape the future of gaming on a global scale.

Standard Time for the Moon

Why in news?

• The White House directed NASA to establish a Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC)to standardise cislunar operations with the universal time followed on Earth.

Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC)

• The LTC will be the standard to measure cislunar operations — space activities between the moon and Earth— with Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the global time used to regulate time on Earth.
• NASA has been directed to engage with the 39 nations who have signed the Artemis Accords for this project.
  • The White House has set a deadline of December 31, 2026, for NASA and its international partners to deliver a strategy to implement LTC.

Key Points

• The White House’s Celestial Time Standardization policy seeks to assign a time standard to each celestial body and its surrounding space environment, first focusing on the lunar surfaceand missions operating in cislunar spac
• It outlines the four features such a time standard must possess:
  • Traceability to UTC: Lunar Time is analogous to Terrestrial Time on Earth (TAI+ 32.184 seconds). Similar to Terrestrial Time, Lunar Time may be set through an ensemble of clocks on the moon.
    • This time standard, i.e., LTC may directly employ or distribute the UTC offsets required to maintain both local time and UTC time within tolerance limits.
  • Scalability beyond the Earth-Moon system: Conversion of LTC to UTC for operations involving interactions with Earth will be possible by using the above approach to set the LTC.
    • This approach is also extensible to space environments beyond the Earth-Moon system (for example, for Mars).
  • Accuracy for precision navigation and science:The LTC will give users in cislunar space a reference time standard near the gravitational environment in which they operate.
    • Space assets can synchronise with each other with precision for navigation.
  • Resilience to loss of contact with Earth: The reference time – LTC – must survive independently when contact to Earth is lost.

Why is LTC needed?

• UTC cannot be used to determine time on the Moon. That is because time on the Moon flows differently than it does on the Earth.
  • On Earth, we use a 24-hour day based on the planet’s rotation.
    • However, the moon rotates much more slowly – every 29.5 Earth days.” Due to its slow rotation, it would be practical to have less than Earth’s 24 time zones
  • Previous moon missions involved astronauts visiting the lunar surface, completing their work and flying home.
  • However, with space agencies across the world aiming to establish a permanent human presence on the moon, LTC is required,
  • The pressing need for LTC is due to the plan to create a dedicated global satellite navigation system (GNSS) for the moon by 2030.
    • This system will function similar to how the Global positioning system (GPS) and other navigation networks work on Earth.
  • Moon missions of various agencies will need an official lunar time to communicate with Earth-based stations and each other.
  • Commercial operationson lunar surface involving transactions and logistics will be more reliable with the LTC

Issues in defining and implementing LTC

• The process of defining lunar time is complicated by the effect of the moon’s gravitational pull.
• As per special relativity theory, due to the weaker gravitational pull of the moon, a clock on the moon would run faster than one on Earth.
• A clock’s speed would also change depending on its position on the lunar surface, because of the moon’s rotation,

Global Progress

• In November 2022, the need for a unified lunar time was voiced globally by space agencies and academic organizations at an ESA meeting in the Netherlands.
• In 2023, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched a project called ‘Moonlight’ to design satellites for astronauts and robotic explorers, which will be used to support NASA’s moon mission ‘Artemis.’
  • While working on the project, questions arose on setting a single time zone for the moon and how to go about it.
• Several countries have lunar ambitions.
  • China has stated that it will put its astronauts on the moon by 2030, while
  • India plans to land in 2040.
  • In January, Japan became the fifth country to land a spacecraft on the moon, after the US, Russia, India and China.
    • However, India is the only one to land a spacecraft near the lunar south pole.

Future Outlook 

• In September 2025, NASA’s four-member Artemis crew is scheduled to fly around the moon in preparation for the space agency’s mission to land on the moon again.
  • To boost such scientific missions, there is a need to establish a Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC) to standardise cislunar operations with the universal time followed on Earth.
• A consistent definition of time among operators in space is critical to successful space situational awareness capabilities, navigation, and communications.