- Sunday, February 23, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
PRIME minister Narendra Modi, who has time and again given call for India to become self-sufficient (‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’), on Thursday (23) said about 80 per cent of the toys that the country imports was sending billions of rupees abroad and asserted that the situation must change. He said it is time India goes vocal for local toys.
Noting that India’s share in the global toy market worth almost $100 billion (Rs 7.5 lakh crore) was only about $1.5 billion (over Rs 11,000 crore), Modi sought improvement in the country’s standing in what he called ‘Toyconomy’ or the economic aspects of the toy and gaming industry. He made his remarks after speaking with the participants of Toycathon-2021 via video conferencing. The event was jointly launched by a number of ministries of the Indian government, including education, women and child development, textile, promotion of industry and internal trade, etc in January to crowd-source innovative toys and game ideas.
“Today, we import around 80 per cent of our toys from abroad. Which means crores of rupees of the country are going abroad on them. It is very important to change this situation,” Modi said.
Toy sector can also help in social progress
The prime minister said that beyond numbers, the toy sector also is capable of bringing progress and growth to the needy segments of the society. He said the sector has its own small-scale industry, artisans from the rural population, Dalits, poor and tribal people and acknowledged the contribution that women make to the sector.
“In order to take the benefits to these segments, we need to be vocal for local toys,” Modi said. He underlined the need to create interesting and interactive games that “engage, entertain and educate” and also called for fresh models of innovation and financing to make Indian toys competitive at the global level. He also said that world wants to learn from India’s capabilities, art and culture, and society and added that toys can play a big role in that.
He also added that the 75th anniversary of India’s independence, which falls next year, is a huge opportunity for the innovators and creators of the toy industry. “Many incidents, stories of our freedom fighters and their valour and leadership can be created into gaming concepts,” he said.
Earlier, Modi interacted with participants of Toycathon 2021 via video conferencing and central ministers like Piyush Goyal and Sanjay Dhotre were also present. Modi said the participation of over 1,500 teams in the first Toycathon signalled the strengthening of the ‘Atmarnibhar Bharat’ programme.
Around 1.2 lakh participants from across India registered and submitted more than 17,000 ideas for the Toycathon 2021, out of which 1,567 ideas were shortlisted for the three-day online Toycathon Grand Finale, held from June 22 to June 24.
