Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : Union Textiles and Women and Child Development Smriti Zubin Irani has urged the research bodies working under the aegis of Ministry of Education to look into the prospects of sustainable toys. Irani and Minister of Union Minister of State for Education Sanjay Dhotre virtually inaugurated Toycathon 2021 grand finale on June 22, 2021.
Amit Khare, Secretary, Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Upendra Prasad Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, Prof. Anil D. Sahasrabudhe, Chairman, AICTE, were present at the inauguration session.
Toycathon 2021 was jointly launched by the Ministry of Education, WCD Ministry, MSME Ministry, DPIIT, Textile Ministry, I&B Ministry, and AICTE on January 5, 2021, to crowd-source innovative toys and games ideas. Around 1.2 lakh participants from across India registered and submitted more than 17,000 ideas for the Toycathon 2021, of which 1567 ideas have been shortlisted for the online Toycathon Grand Finale, being held from June 22 to 24, 2021. Toycathon-2021 is aimed at boosting the Toy Industry in India to help it capture a wider share of the toy market.
Speaking on the occasion, Irani marked the moment as historical where the nation’s first toy hackathon is being dedicated to the world. The Minister complimented the individual teams that submitted the ideas at Toycathon 2021. She emphasised that the toys have huge impact on psychomotor abilities of children, impact their memory skill, and generate huge responsibility towards ensuring future autonomy of the child. She expressed her concerns that 85% toys that our children are playing with are imported and are predominantly made of plastic. She said that India is known for its engineering potential and our technologists should equip toy sector with adequate and innovative technologies for electronic toys.
rani also suggested that Ministry of Education and Ministry of Women and Child Development in collaboration with NIMHANS can do a Research paper on the impact of Toys on the neurological development of children, specially the children who are challenged with some disorders and also on ensuring that the toys are used as an effective methodology to help those children come out of these challenges towards amiable solutions, according to a PIB release.
Irani said that our legacy of toys has an imprint of handicrafts and expressed hope that the ideas that have comeforth through the Toycathon will also have a significant impact on the handicrafts sector.
Dhotre said Indian toy market stands at around $1.5 billion USD and currently we are importing a major chunk from outside. The global toy market is estimated to be more than 100 billion USD, we must channelise our creative, innovative, and manufacturing power to have our share in these areas. This toycathon will provide opportunity to our young innovative minds to lead the path to manufacture toys in India for the world.
Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, U P Singh, said that along with commercial aspect of the Toy industry, the pedagogy part is very important for inculcating values, and ethos in young minds about our history art and culture. He stated that there is huge potential in toy industry and Toycathon is also an integral part of the Toy Fair 2021.
Singh informed that in the virtual India Toy fair, which was held from February 27 2021, to March 4, 2021, about 1,226 exhibitors from 26 toy clusters from different states and UTs participated. A total of 41 knowledge sessions were organised with over 100 national and international speakers. Over 26 lakh registrations were recorded on the portal – www.theindiatoyfair.in . He also informed that Ministry of Textiles is planning for regional physical toy fair at 12 places.