ITM Raipur hosts ‘Toycothon 2021’
- The three-day event backed by Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan will be hosted from 22nd June to 23rdJune 2021
Raipur: ITM University, Raipur hosts ‘TOYCOTHON 2021’, an event that holistically focuses on encouraging the challenging minds to conceptualize novel toys and games based on Bhartiya Civilisation, history, culture, mythology and ethos. Under this initiative,Students, Teachers, Start-ups and Toy experts/professionals in India will showcase their innovative toys/games concepts and the deserving design will win prize worth Rs. 50 lakhs. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has addressed the winner of the event; the wining team will also be supported by the industry and investors to commercialise their toy concepts.
Curated under the ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ initiated by our Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri. Narendra Modi, this inter-ministerial initiative is organized by the Ministry of Education’s Innovation cell with support from All India Council for Technical Education, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of MSME, Ministry of Textile and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Toycothon 2021 will derive focus on toys and games conceptualised on Indian Civilization, heritage, culture, mythology, history, ethos, technology, ethnicity, national heroes and important events. Concepts pertaining to toys for specially-abled children, focus on promoting Vedic Mathematics, redesigning of traditional Indian toys and toys for pedagogy. These concepts and designs should confine to basic toy guidelines issued by the Govt of India.
India, despite being a home of many globally popular games like Chess, Ludo, Snakes and Ladders, is not among leading developers and manufacturers of toys. Currently, India’s toy market stands at around 1.5 Billion USD, which primarily is dominated by imported toys. Moreover, majority of these toys do not represent Indian heritage, civilization and value systems.
Prof. (Dr.) Vikas Singh, Vice- Chancellor, ITM University, Raipur says, “We are honoured to host this one-of-a-kind initiative and contribute to the goal of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ as envisioned by our Honorable PM. India is diverse in talent and has tremendous potential to become global leader in the industry of toys and games as we can trace many such games and toys to our Indian history. We are looking forward to be a part of many such initiatives.”
Dr. Mohit Gambhir, Innovation Director, Ministry of Education Innovation Cell critically analysed the importance of such hackathons in boosting the innovation for Indian MSME toy Industry. He says, “Toycathon has the potential to revolutionize the MSME sector related to the toy Industry. This Toycathon will inculcate the culture of competition and Innovation among our Innovative youth and that will in turn boost the local manufacturing of toys for modern age inspired from the tradition of our motherland”.
Dr. Ishwari Kumar, Faculty Member, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India Gandhi Nagar, Gujara says, “Approx 80% of imports are from china..in this condition tycothon will encourage students to develop their technical skills and give new reach in their ideology also it will make our country’s economy strong.”
Prime Minister was witnessed appreciating ITM University, Raipur and the other 80 nodal centres hosting Toycothon 2021 across the country.