NEW DELHI: The Animation Producers' Association Of India (APAI) is being formally inaugurated in New Delhi today.

Twenty animation production houses, including UTV Toons, Pentamedia, Padmalaya, Crest and Maya Entertainment have decided to join forces to market India as an important centre for outsourcing content, according to media reports. The association will create a common website, produce CD-ROM's and participate in international festivals like MIPCOM 2002 at Cannes.

" If India desires to garner five to seven per cent of the outsourcing market in the next two to three years, it will need to lobby together as a body and get industry status from the government. The government has to take several initiatives," UTV Toons' chief operating officer Biren Ghose has been quoted as saying.