Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with participants of Toycathon 2021 today via video conferencing at 11 am. 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 have been shortlisted for the three-day online Toycathon Grand Finale, being held from June 22 to June 24.
For this purpose, the Ministry of Education Innovation Cell has engaged 645 mentors and evaluators for 1567 participating teams. 85 Nodal centres have been selected to support the Ministry of Educations Innovation Cell and the All India Council for Technical Education, which are the organizing agencies for this Inter-ministerial Toycathon.
The hackathon was initially conceptualized in physical as well as digital mode. Due to the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic and owing to the safety of participants the physical edition has been deferred and now only digital edition is being conducted from June 22 to June 24, 2021.
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, the PMO noted.
Union Minister Women and Child Development and Textiles Smriti Zubin Irani and Minister of State for Education Sanjay Dhotre virtually inaugurated Toycathon 2021 grand finale on June 22.
Toycathon 2021 is aimed at boosting the toy industry in India to help it capture a wider share of the toy market.