As the pandemic hit the world, the most hurt were the national economies of various countries. India, having a GDP of nearly Three trillion dollars, was also hit badly with most informal sector jobs coming to a halt abruptly. Even big industries also stopped operations. It was a war against an unseen and unknown enemy. It was then, in the middle of this distress, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the clarion call of Atmanirbhar Bharat or self-reliant India. The idea was to minimize imports and maximize exports so that India meets its domestic demands with domestic production. Further, India could also become a global export hub for various sunrise industries and products. In the August 2020 session of his radio broadcast “Maan ki Baat”, the PM expressed his desire to establish India as a global toy and gaming hub. The Indian toy and gaming industry is at a nascent stage on a global scale both in terms of its market as well as its manufacturing scale. The sector is fragmented with 90 per cent of the market being unorganized and 4000 toy industry units being from the MSME sector. The toy manufacturers in India are mostly located in NCR Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and clusters across central Indian states. The PM stressed the need for increasing its international footprint, achieving organic synergies across demographics, and leveraging the availability of raw materials and artisan skill sets to achieve the goal of making India a global toy hub.
The global market for toys is estimated to be around 100 billion USD. The Indian toy market is estimated to be around 1.5 Billon USD. As of 2020, 85 per cent of the Indian market demand was sourced from Asian countries, predominantly China. Domestic manufacturing accounted for just 15 per cent of the total Indian toy market. This trade deficit is alarmingly large, given the potential for India to be self-reliant in this industry. In 2018-19, toys worth USD 371 Million were imported into our country. A large proportion of these toys were unsafe, substandard, counterfeit, and cheap. A mystery shopping exercise conducted in 2019 revealed that only 33 per cent of toys in the domestic market were of acceptable quality as per BIS standards. The large imports of cheap and substandard toys were not only harmful to children but were also affecting the domestic industry adversely.
As part of the follow-up action plan, the government had taken various steps with regard to quality control and gave support to developing toy manufacturing clusters. A Toy Fair and national Toycathon were also organized in 2021. Toycathon is the first-of-its-kind hackathon to develop indigenous toys and games highlighting India’s culture, history and mythology. Various organizations like the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) joined the movement. Even state governments like the government of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and West Bengal also pitched in to develop the toy manufacturing industry. The results are brilliant as evident from the fact that the import of toys is down by 70 per cent in the last three years. Similarly, the export of toys has increased by 61 per cent. Export of products such as plastic scooters, pedal cars, dolls’ carriages, dolls, puzzles etc. have increased by nearly 70 per cent from USD 62.4 Million in 2018-19 to USD 99.9 Million in 2021-22. The government is also keen on developing the AVGC sector (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comic) as India is already a global leader in film production as well as software services. Media & Entertainment ecosystem is a sunrise sector expected to generate Rs Four lakh crores annually by 2025 and reach $100 billion or Rs 7.5 lakh crore industry by 2030. The government of India has designated audio-visual services as one of the 12 Champion Service Sectors and announced key policy measures aimed at nurturing sustained growth. India has the potential to create 1.6 lakh jobs annually in the AVGC sector. To further unleash the scope of AVGC sector, an announcement was made in the Union Budget 2022-23 for setting up an AVGC Promotion Task Force to recommend ways to realize and build domestic capacity for serving our markets and the global demand.
As part of the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations, the Government of India has, for the first time, launched two mobile video games in collaboration with social gaming developer Zynga. Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shri Anurag Singh Thakur launched the games under the banner ‘Azadi Quest’ – a series of online educational games based on India’s freedom struggle. The initiative is inspired by PM’s call to ‘Engage, Entertain and Educate’ the people through toys and games. The Publications Division of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Zynga India have signed an MoU to mark a year-long partnership to commemorate ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ through a series of mobile games. Launched in English and Hindi, for both Android and iOS devices in India, the games will be available globally in September 2022.
The first game in the series is Azadi Quest: Match 3 Puzzle, a simple and easy-to-play casual game presenting the players with the colourful journey of India’s independence from 1857 to 1947. As players progress through the gameplay, spread across 495 levels they can collect 75 trivia cards, each showcasing key moments in history, compete on leaderboards, and share in-game rewards and progress on social media. On the other hand, Azadi Quest: Heroes of Bharat is designed as a quiz game to test the knowledge of the players about the heroes of India’s independence through 750 questions spread across 75 levels and also tell them about the lesser-known heroes through 75 ‘Azadi Veer’ cards which can be shared across social media platforms.
