India’s creative industries—media, entertainment, gaming, and digital platforms—are growing exponentially. To realize this growth, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) launched the Nifty Waves Index on May 2, 2025, during the WAVES 2025 summit in Mumbai. The index intends to offer investors a transparent benchmark to track the performance of businesses leading the country’s creative economy.
What is the Nifty Waves Index?
The Nifty Waves Index is a sector index that includes 43 listed companies from India’s media, entertainment, gaming, film, television, digital platforms, and music sectors. It is a gauge of the market performance of the creative economy and provides insights into the dynamics of the sector.
Index Construction and Methodology
- Launch Date: May 2, 2025
- Base Date: April 1, 2005
- Base Value: 1,000
- Reconstitution: Semi-annually
- Re-balancing: Quarterly
- Weighting Methodology: Free-float market capitalization, capped at 5% per stock
Significance of the Nifty Waves Index
The Nifty Waves Index is very significant for different stakeholders:
- Investors: Provides a concentrated view of the creative industries, facilitating portfolio diversification.
- Policy Makers: Delivers empirical insights into the performance of the creative economy.
- Industry Analysts: Acts as a benchmark to judge sectoral trends and company performances.
- Companies: Facilitates self-comparison with industry peers and growth opportunity identification.
The Creative Economy’s Growth Trajectory
India’s creative economy is growing fast, fueled by:
- Digital Transformation: Growing internet penetration and smartphone use.
- Content Consumption: Growing demand for niche and regional content.
- Gaming Industry Boom: Growing mobile gaming and e-sports.
- Global Collaborations: Indian content attracting global popularity.
Year-on-Year Growth Overview
| Year | Revenue (INR Trillion) | Growth Rate |
| 2022 | 2.1 | 20% |
| 2023 | 2.3 | 8.3% |
| 2024 | 2.5 | 3.3% |
| 2025 | 2.7 | 7.2% |
| 2027 | 3.1 | 7% (CAGR) |
In 2024, the sector’s growth decelerated to 3.3%, primarily due to declining subscription revenues and a global downturn in outsourced Animation and VFX work.
Understanding the Index’s Methodology
The Nifty Waves Index uses a free-float market capitalization method, making sure that the firms with greater market participation play a bigger role. The 5% threshold avoids the over representation of a single firm and ensures well-rounded exposure
Reconstitution and Re balancing:
- Semi-Annual Reconstitution: Maintains the index as representative by adding or deleting companies depending on eligibility.
- Quarterly Re balancing: Re balances weight ages to represent market capitalization changes.
Comparative Analysis: Nifty Waves vs. Other Sectoral Indices
| Index Name | Sector Focus | Number of Constituents | Launch Year |
| Nifty Waves | Media, Entertainment, Gaming | 43 | 2025 |
| Nifty IT | Information Technology | 10 | 1996 |
| Nifty FMCG | Fast-Moving Consumer Goods | 15 | 1999 |
| Nifty Pharma | Pharmaceuticals | 20 | 2001 |
Investment Opportunities
Investors have access to the Nifty Waves Index through:
- Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs): Soon to be available, ETFs based on the index will provide an easy investment channel.
- Mutual Funds: Sector mutual funds targeting media and entertainment.
- Direct Equity: Investment in underlying constituent stocks based on performance and growth potential.
Conclusion
Introduction of the Nifty Waves Index represents an important step towards acknowledging and measuring the effect of India’s creative economy. With media, entertainment, and gaming industries increasingly thriving, the index will provide a valuable aid to investors, analysts, and policymakers alike in monitoring and being a part of this dynamic market segment.
