Shri U.P. Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles has said that the first ever virtual ‘India Toy Fair, 2021’ envisioned by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, in his  Mann ki Baat address in August 2020, is a great beginning which will give a lot of fillip to the Toy Industry. Participating in a Webinar on ‘Success Stories of Entrepreneurs working with Traditional Toy Clusters’ during the India Toy Fair-2021, today, Shri Singh stated that toys have been identified as one of the 24 key sectors under Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan. He said a National Action Plan for Toys has been created by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) which calls to action many central Ministries including Textiles, MSME,  I&B, Education, DPIIT under Ministry of Commerce and other departments to nurture and promote the industry. He stated that Toycathon-2021 was conceived to challenge India’s innovative minds to conceptualize novel Toy and Games and to crowdsource solutions to different problems faced by the toy industry and wonderful ideas from all cross sections received.

Shri Singh said that The India Toy Fair 2021 has brought together all stakeholders of the industry onto a common platform to create sustainable linkages and promote dialogue for the holistic development of the industry and present to the globe the richness and vastness of the India’s toy manufacturing capabilities. He said efforts will be made to help the Toy Clusters to create toys with blending of tradition and demand of modern time and issues of safety, sustainability and eco-friendliness will be taken care of. He said Government is looking forward to new ideas being generated for toy industry during the Fair such as capacity building, design, innovation in toys, upgradation of machinery and marketing etc. which may be incorporated in future schemes/policies. He expressed hope that India will have substantial share in Toys exports in the days to come. The webinar on Success Stories of Entrepreneurs working with Traditional Toy Clusters focused on traditional toy crafts of India, opportunities of reviving and giving a modern twist to traditional Indian toys, manufacturing challenges, marketing and packaging solutions for traditional toys and policy interventions.

Participating in the Webinar on ‘Scaling up Toy Exports from India’,  Dr. Anup Wadhawan, Secretary, Ministry of Commerce said that  TITF intends to bring policy makers, toy manufacturers, distributors, investors, industry experts, MSMEs, artisans, start ups, children, parents and teachers together on a common platform in a bid to propel the growth of Indian toy industry and to give it a global competitive edge. He mentioned that there is significant export potential from India in the toy sector. There is need to create enabling environment for potential exporters to improve productivity and technological content of our products.  Dr. Wadhawan further stated that government intends to promote Toy clusters through innovative and creative methods.  Toy manufacturing clusters should be developed by State Governments to attract international players to set up their manufacturing base in India. He also emphasised on  Promotion of toy based tourism, local toy banks and libraries.

The Secretary further informed that government will make all efforts to create a comparative environment, a level playing field against unfair competition from cheap and substandard imports in promoting this endeavour. He also urged industry to identify and raise specific issues of ease of doing business impacting toy exports that can be ironed out with the help of concerned Departments in the Government. He also assured full support of Department of Commerce in ensuring promotion of Indian toys, domestically and globally,  in an early timeframe. The webinar on Scaling up Toy Exports from India shared the perspective of industry players on how India can be made an export destination for toys and discussed Government’s views in terms of policies for encouraging exports of toys from India.

The third day of The India Toy Fair 2021 hosted over 35 eminent speakers from industry, academia and the Government. There were seven panel discussions, webinars and four activities were organised. The panel discussion on Product Innovation and Design in Toys touched upon the different aspects of innovating and designing a toy. The webinar on Indian toy manufacturing and sourcing opportunities that Indian states have to offer to the Toy industry highlighted the manufacturing capability and capacity of three states – Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. The webinar on Significance of Quality & Safety in Toys focused on the global industry’s view on how safety and quality trends are significant for toy products. Best practices on preparing government policies around quality and safety in toys were also discussed.  

The webinar on Toys and parents: Innovative engagement with children for learning at home, by UNICEF covered the different aspects of parental engagement and use of toys at home. The discussion focused on the importance of parental engagement, experiences in creating toys and different ways of engaging with toys to enhance learning. The webinar on Design Town Hall on Toys explored toys as a tool in pedagogy as part of primary, secondary and tertiary education, across normal pupil as well as pupil with special needs.

The activities during Day 3 included Craft Demonstration from Varanasi’s wooden toy cluster, Koppal’s Kinhal toy cluster and Asharikandi cluster. Another activity witnessed during the day was virtual visit to Centy Toys a toy manufacturing unit.

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BY/TFK