The Hallyu in India began around Manipur and other northeastern regions in the early 2000s. Until the early 2010s, interest in Korean cultural content in mainland India was low, and it was not treated as a mainstream culture. Recently, however, the Hallyu in India has been spreading around K-pop and K-drama. This study analyzed the background, level of popularity, and characteristics of the Hallyu in India and suggested some policy implications.
   Chapter 2 analyzes the characteristics of India’s audiovisual content markets. India is traditionally a country with a high preference for its own culture, but interest in various cultural content is increasing around the Millennial generation with income growth. Recently, as the digital platform has spread due to the influence of Covid-19, access to overseas content has naturally increased, which is an opportunity to expand interest in Korean music, dramas, movies, etc. In 2020, for example, major Indian satellite broadcasters opened channels exclusively for Korea, providing an opportunity for the Hallyu to expand to those who have not yet contacted online content.
   Chapter 3 and 4 analyzed the trend of the Hallyu in India, and the main results are as follows. First, the level of interest in K-drama is highest in India, followed by K-pop and K-movie. The distribution of Korean content is expanding through Netflix, Amazon Prime, and India’s own OTT (Over-The-Top). Meanwhile, K-pop is gaining popularity throughout India, with BTS at the center. The Hallyu, which began with K-drama and K-pop, has recently led to preference to K-beauty, food and Korean language learning.
   Second, India is significantly less interested in Hallyu than Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia. What is special about K-pop and K-drama is that trends in Southeast Asia and India have tended to synchronize. This is related to the environment in which real-time spread of content through online has become possible, along with strengthening the competitiveness of Hallyu content.
   Third, while Korea’s flagship products and brands such as IT and home appliances are receiving widespread attention in India, brand awareness of cultural content such as BTS, which can be directly related to the formation of Korea’s national image, is relatively low. However, according to the annual survey of the Hallyu abroad conducted by the Korea International Cultural Exchange Promotion Agency, K-drama and K-pop are emerging as an important element constructing Korea’s country image in India. This shows that the Hallyu is beginning to be associated with the image of Korea among Indian people.
   Fourth, K-drama and K-pop are attracting attention in limited regions of India. The Hallyu in India is concentrated in seven northeastern states, followed by the southern region. In the rest of the region, the popularity of Hallyu is relatively not noticeable. However, according the Indian presses, it is believed that the Hallyu is now expanding throughout India. Seven northeastern states have low income levels, but are ethnically and culturally close to Korea. Pondicherry, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in the southern region are religiously and culturally open, with relatively high levels of income and education.
   Fifth, the long-term Hallyu trend in India since 2004 shows that the level of interest in the Hallyu is most noticeable as the spread of Covid-19 began. In particular, the number of K-drama-related reports in 2020 doubled from the previous year in India. This phenomenon is also seen in Southeast Asia, but is most prominent in India. By region, interest in Hallyu content after Covid-19 in seven northeastern states and southern regions is rapidly increasing. In the case of K-pop, interest tends to rise in Kerala and Delhi, which had relatively low interest in K-pop. Covid-19 made favorable condition for the spread of the Hallyu in India.
   Chapter 5 presents implications based on the above research. First, There is a need to expand Hallyu-linked cultural exchange projects in the southern part of India where the Hallyu has recently emerged, as well as in large cities such as Delhi and Mumbai. Tamil Nadu and Kerala have cultural industry backgrounds and could be a new hub for the Hallyu. In addition to K-drama and K-pop, we also needs to pay attention to K-beauty, which has high potential to expand the market regardless of India’s regional characteristics.
   Second, we need to expand Korean language education in India with the popularity of the Hallyu. Indian consumers cite linguistic factors as an important obstacle to Korean cultural content consumption. Since the spread of the Hallyu leads to demand for the Korean language, and the knowledge on the Korean language leads to interest in the Korea itself, Korean language education will be an important medium for maximizing the positive external effects of the Hallyu and improving Korea’s national brand.
   Third, it is necessary to utilize the Agreement on Cooperation in Audio-Visual Co-production signed between Korea and India in 2015. India signed audio-visual co-production agreements with 15 countries including Korea, and has jointly produced a number of films with France, Canada, etc. India has already remade a number of Korean films and is showing interest in K-drama, but there have been no cases of co-production of movies or dramas yet. Korean producers should consider what Indian consumers and producers expect from the joint production.
   Fourth, it is necessary to expand cooperation among cultural agencies. While the Korean Cultural Center in Dehli is the only institution in India, it is time to actively expand institutional-level cooperation in India.
   Fifth, regarding India, Korean government or agencies’ supports to link Hallyu to national brands are crucial. It is required to strengthen Korean companies (especially SMEs)’ marketing in India combined with Hallyu content.