Prime Minister Narendra Modi today interacted with the participants of Toycathon-2021 via video conferencing. A total of five teams presented their unique toy and gaming ideas during the live video conference. As many as 1567 ideas have been selected for the three-day Toycathon grand finale, which is being held from June 22-24. Amid Covid-19, the online grand finale will showcase digital toy ideas, while a separate physical event will be organised for non-digital toy concepts. The winners will be awarded prizes worth Rs 50 lakh. Team Eyecognito developed Aura AI, which gamifies the ancient art of Yoga using VR and AR technology. It prompts the users to perform Yoga while sharing the benefits with the users. Another team, Heritage Race presented its idea to the pane. It is a digitally connected physically actioned racing game that promotes Indian heritage. Since heritage sites and monuments are closed due to Covid-19, the team created a virtual environment where the participant can cycle through the heritage paths such as Taj Mahal while using a steady cycling machine at home. It also plays Vedic music in the background that focuses on the user's mental health. PM Modi suggested the team to devise the same mechanism for a treadmill so that users can also run on these trails. A team of young students from the Delhi Public School, Miyapur, Hyderabad, created Kreedavyuh. A board game that combines concepts of modern and Vedic math for students of all ages and visually impaired students. It has concepts of factors, exponents and multiples. Read | With Toycathon, govt to focus on desi toys, superheroes from Indian mythology Around 1.2 lakh participants from across India registered and submitted more than 17000 ideas. Toycathon 2021 was jointly launched by the Ministry of Education, WCD Ministry, MSME Ministry, DPIIT, Textile Ministry, I&B Ministry and AICTE to crowd-source innovative toys and games ideas. India’s domestic market, as well as the global toy market, offers a huge opportunity to our manufacturing sector. Globally, toy-making is a $100 billion industry, with China, the USA, Germany and Japan as the key players. India imports 80 to 85 per cent of its annual $1.5-billion toy market. In comparison to the large giants, Indian toys have a minuscule presence in the global market. Toycathon 2021 is aimed at boosting the toy Industry in India to help it capture a wider share of the toy market.
