On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with the participants of Toycathon-2021 through video conferencing. Toycathon 2021 is an inter-ministerial initiative organized by the Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell with support from the All India Council.
Union Ministers Piyush Goyal and Sanjay Dhotre were also present at the event. The event mainly focused on the games developed by the participants, while PM Modi advised more ideas to the developers that could be included in their games.
At the conference, PM Modi said, ” In the last 5-6 years, Hackathons have been made a big platform to solve the problems of the country. The thinking behind this is – to organize the country’s potential, to give it a medium. The effort is that our youth should be directly connected with the challenges and solutions of the country. If the child’s first school is the family, then the first book and the first friends, these are the toys. Children’s first communication with society is through these toys.”
He further added, ” There is another huge aspect associated with toys, which everyone needs to know. This is the economy of the world of Toys and Gaming – Toyconomy. The global toy market is worth about $100 billion. India’s share in this is only around one and a half-billion dollars. Today we import around 80 percent of our toys as well. That is, crores of rupees of the country are going out on these. It is very important to change this situation.”
Global games promote violence and lead to mental stress – PM Modi
The Prime Minister expressed his concerns on the global online and digital games that are not based on Indian concepts. According to him, these games either promote Violence or Mental Stress.
He said, ” Today the world wants to understand the present potential of India, the art-culture of India, the society of India in a better way. Our Toys and Gaming industry can play a big role in this.”
