Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday held an interaction with the participants of Toycathon 2021, where he said that tradition and technology are India’s greatest strengths.
“Students, teachers, startups have enthusiastically participated in Toycathon 2021. The participation of over 1,500 teams during the grand finale of the first event indicates a bright future. The event also strengthens the Aatmanirbhar Bharat campaign,” PM Modi said and lauded the participants from Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and other places who presented their digital toy ideas based on India’s history, mythology and the ongoing coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic among others.
The Prime Minister also made an appeal to the country’s youth with regard to self-reliance and coming up with local solutions in the world of toys and digital gaming.
“Toys and games influence our mental power, creativity and our economy. All of us know that a child’s first school is his/her family. But the first book and first friends are toys,” PM Modi said.
Toycathon 2021 was jointly launched by the Education ministry, Women and child development, Textile ministry, Department for promotion of textile and internal trade, Information and broadcasting ministry, MSME ministry and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) on January 5 this year to crowd-source innovative toys and game ideas.
Around 120,000 people across the country took part in this event and over 17,000 ideas were submitted of which 1,567 were shortlisted for the final event which is being held from June 22-24. Amid the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic, the final will have teams with digital toy ideas and a separate offline event take place for non-digital toy ideas.
“India’s domestic market as well as the global toy market offers a huge opportunity to our manufacturing sector. Toycathon-2021 is aimed at boosting the Toy Industry in India to help it capture a wider share of the toy market,” the Centre said in a statement.
{{/usCountry}}“India’s domestic market as well as the global toy market offers a huge opportunity to our manufacturing sector. Toycathon-2021 is aimed at boosting the Toy Industry in India to help it capture a wider share of the toy market,” the Centre said in a statement.
{{/usCountry}}The launch of this event can be linked to PM Modi’s pitch for Made in India toys last year. During the 68th edition of his Mann Ki Baat on August 30, 2020, Modi said that the global toy industry was over ₹7 lakh crore and India’s share was very small. “We will have to work to increase it,” he said and called upon entrepreneurs to ‘team up for toys’ as it is time to be vocal for local toys. He also urged entrepreneurs to develop computer games in and about the country.