India's Orange Economy: When Creativity Became Economic Policy
On a bustling afternoon in Old Delhi's historic Parathe Wali Gali, Darshit Singh raised his smartphone and did something remarkable. He wasn't praising the food; he was critiquing it. His "honest review" reel of a legacy eatery and Daulat ki Chaat garnered over 7.3 million views, sparking a flood of messages, invitations, and opportunities from across cities.
That was 2024. Today, Singh proudly identifies as India's pioneering "food deinfluencer." Meanwhile, Santosh, an IIT-Delhi alumnus and corporate professional, was boarding a late-night flight after completing a full workday. He refuses to choose between spreadsheets and sunsets, declaring himself "a traveler with a full-time job"—a phrase that now defines his digital persona.
What once appeared as isolated viral reels has evolved into a significant movement: India's creator economy, projected to be worth thousands of crores and increasingly recognized in the nation's economic framework. This year's Union Budget made a subtle yet profound shift by integrating creativity into the growth narrative, heralding India's Orange Economy moment.
The Orange Economy: From Cultural Celebration to Financial Recognition
For decades, art, storytelling, and digital creation resided on the fringes of economic planning—celebrated culturally but seldom quantified financially. This paradigm is now changing. The "Orange Economy," a term popularized by the Inter-American Development Bank, refers to industries that transform ideas into cultural goods and services protected by intellectual property. It encompasses media, film, music, publishing, animation, gaming, advertising, design, fashion, digital content, and increasingly, independent creators.
In India's Union Budget 2026–27, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a substantial push for the nation's creative industries, explicitly referencing the Orange Economy. Presenting the Budget, Sitharaman emphasized that India's creative and AVGC-XR (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics, and Extended Reality) ecosystem holds immense potential to generate large-scale employment and establish India as a global content hub.
Key announcements included:
- An allocation of Rs 400 crore for the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) in Mumbai
- Establishment of 15,000 AVGC labs in schools nationwide
- Integration of creative and digital skills into 500 colleges across India
- Policy support aimed at building a workforce pipeline for the AVGC-XR sector
The Economic Survey projected that the AVGC sector alone could require up to 2 million skilled professionals by 2030. Sitharaman highlighted the need to align India's demographic dividend with emerging sectors, particularly those driven by digital platforms and intellectual property.
At the WAVES summit earlier this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reinforced this direction, describing India as a nation with "a billion-plus stories" and positioning the creative economy as both cultural capital and economic opportunity.
Influencer Economy: From Digital Voices to Structured Media Power
Influencer marketing, defined as collaborations between popular social-media users and brands to promote products or services, has evolved from informal shoutouts into a regulated, data-driven industry. The scale is now substantial. Globally, the influencer marketing economy was valued at $21.1 billion in 2023, more than doubling since 2019, driven by platforms like Instagram and YouTube.
According to Ernst & Young, India's creator economy is projected to grow at an 18% compound annual growth rate, rising from Rs 19 billion in 2023 to Rs 34 billion by 2026. The broader creator economy is now a $250 billion global force, with Goldman Sachs projecting it to reach $480 billion by 2027.
India's influencer marketing sector is projected to reach Rs 3,375 crore by 2026, growing at an 18% CAGR, per EY's 'State of Influencer Marketing in India' report. Exchange4Media estimates the core influencer market at around Rs 3,600 crore in 2024, expected to reach Rs 4,500 crore in 2025, though insiders suggest the actual size may exceed Rs 10,000 crore due to direct brand-creator deals outside conventional tracking.
Creator fees have risen by 10–30%, with top-tier creators in India reportedly earning between Rs 10–25 crore annually through endorsements, platform monetization, live events, and equity partnerships.
Influencers are categorized by follower size:
- Nano influencers: Fewer than 10,000 followers
- Micro influencers: 10,000–50,000 followers
- Medium influencers: 50,000–100,000 followers
- Macro influencers: More than 500,000 followers
- Mega influencers: Over one million followers
EY observes that marketers leverage both large/macro and micro/nano influencers equally. While mega and macro influencers drive awareness and brand loyalty, micro and nano influencers often deliver stronger engagement and relatability.
Regional creators are becoming central to brand strategies. According to Influencer.in (Social Beat), regional creators drive 35–40% better engagement in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. Budget allocation for regional creators has increased from 3–10% earlier to 8–20%, with expectations of further growth.
Gen Z: The Creator Generation
The ecosystem is increasingly youth-driven. A 2024 YouTube India–SmithGeiger report found that 83% of Indian Gen Zers consider themselves creators, and 75% see content creation as a genuine career path. More than 55% reported gaining financial independence through digital platforms.
Influencer marketing is viewed as cost-effective and personalized. Influencers build relatability and directly shape purchase decisions. In fact, 61% of consumers trust recommendations from creators more than traditional brand advertising, according to Sprout Social cited by Forbes.
Influencer partnerships typically follow two models: flat-fee brand deals per post (ranging from Rs 2,000 to Rs 30 lakh per post in India, depending on scale) and affiliate commissions, where influencers earn from sales generated via links or promo codes. Increasingly, creators are moving beyond endorsements to ownership—launching brands, seeking equity partnerships, and building independent revenue streams.
From hyper-local memers to pan-India gaming stars, from nano creators in Tier-3 cities to mega influencers earning crores annually, India's influencer economy is no longer peripheral to marketing. It has become a structured, high-growth pillar of brand strategy—reshaping commerce, culture, and consumer trust in the digital age.
Creator Journeys: Authenticity and Algorithmic Discovery
For Darshit Singh, with a following of 51.7K, the viral Old Delhi reel was merely the beginning. "I started making content post-COVID but it was mostly just pictures and a few videos with music. No voiceover," he recalls. After his breakout moment in 2024, he began studying the platform more closely, particularly the algorithm.
"Instagram is fundamentally different… it thrives on recommendations," he explains. Unlike platforms that depend heavily on follower count, Instagram pushes reels to users who may never have heard of the creator but are likely to engage. "Someone who has never made a video in their life can come to this platform and make one and get millions of views."
Uploading identical content across YouTube Shorts, Facebook, and Threads, Singh notes that Instagram consistently delivers his highest reach. For him, discovery is not accidental; it is engineered.
His identity as a "food deinfluencer" is built on resisting blind positivity in brand culture. "Our society today has a trust crisis. Be it government, institutions, or media. Everyone is facing that. So for me, my audience's trust is paramount," he asserts. Even in paid collaborations, he critiques dishes he dislikes. "I wanna be the reason behind someone's memorable meal."
His approach reflects a broader shift in marketing strategy. "Earlier brands used to only work with celebrities and movie stars but now they prefer influencers in most cases as the latter gives them higher ROI," he observes. "Celebrities promoting a product feels like an ad. But some influencers subtly promote the brand in their organic way… audiences are more likely to purchase that product later."
A few kilometers from Old Delhi's food lanes, Santosh plans his next trip between client calls. He began his creator journey not in airports or mountains but inside hostel rooms. Campus vlogs on YouTube, sharing stories about hostel life, placement anxiety, and the reality of being an IIT student, slowly built a community of aspirants and peers.
Then came Instagram. Reels allowed him to compress entire journeys into seconds—a new state every month, documented between office deadlines. The platform's real-time engagement—stories, reels, DMs—helped him move beyond informational content into something more personal.
"You can be discovered without being famous," he says, noting how some of his travel and IIT reels reached far beyond his existing follower base. More importantly, he has witnessed the industry's transformation.
"When I started, content creation felt experimental," Santosh recalls. "Now brands plan structured budgets. Long-term collaborations. There's more professionalism." In his view, the creative economy is no longer an informal hustle; it's recognized work.
Instagram's Revenue Model: The Business Behind the Scroll
If the Orange Economy is the ecosystem and creators are its lifeblood, then Instagram is the marketplace—the digital high street where attention converts into advertising, and creativity transforms into commerce.
Founded in 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger as a simple photo-sharing app, Instagram was built on the idea that visuals connect people. What began as a minimalist platform for filtered photos has evolved into a billion-user ecosystem of Stories, Reels, shopping tabs, and creator tools.
After Meta (then Facebook) acquired Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion, the platform scaled rapidly. Today, Instagram is estimated to be worth around $400 billion, making it one of the most valuable digital assets globally.
The engine driving this growth? Advertising. Instagram's primary revenue model is advertising, powered by algorithmic precision that delivers content based on user behavior, engagement patterns, and interests.
The platform's shift toward short-form video has supercharged engagement. According to a Meta-commissioned IPSOS study:
- 97% of Indian consumers watch short-form videos daily
- 95% daily usage for Reels, compared to 83% for television
Meta India's Managing Director Arun Srinivas stated: "India is leading the world in video adoption, and Reels is at the center of this shift. Five years since its launch, Reels is India's leading short-form video platform—driving massive engagement, shaping culture, and delivering real business impact."
Instagram's model is symbiotic with the influencer economy. Shoppable tags allow influencers to link products directly. Affiliate links enable commission-based earnings. Sponsored posts generate flat-fee income. Bonuses and milestone incentives reward engagement growth.
Knowledge Creators and Small Businesses: Expanding the Ecosystem
While food reels dominate one corner of the ecosystem, knowledge-driven creators are building influence in quieter but equally powerful ways. For Bikramjeet Dutta, with 51.9K followers, Instagram's inflection point came during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
"I was attending several political rallies, press conferences etc. I started uploading that it started gaining views and followers," he says. His content extends beyond political coverage into books, geopolitics, and history. "Instagram helped me to connect with those who are experts in these fields," he adds, noting that credibility assessment feels more immediate on the platform.
Discovery, he believes, has fundamentally shifted the opportunity landscape. Posting book reviews led to requests from publishers. Geopolitical commentary brought invitations to panel discussions and book launches. "Yes, Instagram has made it easier for creators to be discovered," he affirms.
For many small businesses in India, Instagram is no longer just a marketing add-on. It functions as a storefront, catalogue, customer service desk, and storytelling space—often all at once. The shift became especially visible during the pandemic.
In 2020, Instagram introduced the 'Support Small Business' sticker, grouping Stories using the sticker into a shared feed to enhance discovery. Around the same time, it rolled out features facilitating gift cards, online food orders, and fundraisers, allowing users to tap directly and purchase through partner websites.
For Nidhi, who runs a handmade chocolate business, Instagram became more than a display window. "Instagram didn't just become a platform… it became the space where my creativity found its voice," she explains. She moved from static posts to behind-the-scenes reels—melting chocolate, assembling hampers, last-minute packing—creating a more genuine connection with her audience.
Another small business owner, Harsh, in the fabric trade, echoes this sentiment. "Instagram has played a major role in building our fabric brand identity. Through reels, product videos, and live customer interactions, we showcase our manufacturing quality, fabric textures, and latest collections in a very visual way."
Increased competition, he highlights, has pushed businesses "to become more creative by high-quality reels and by making it more realistic." In the architecture of the Orange Economy, small businesses are not just beneficiaries of digital platforms; they are active participants, adapting content, tone, and strategy in response to algorithmic culture and rising competition.
India's Orange Economy represents a transformative shift where creativity is no longer just cultural expression but a formidable economic force. From deinfluencers challenging brand narratives to corporate travelers documenting journeys between meetings, creators are redefining work, commerce, and community in the digital age, supported by policy initiatives and platform innovations that recognize their growing impact.
