Govt encourages industry to make Indian-themed toys

In the light of the fact that India will begin enforcing quality control for imported toys from September 1 and the government pushing people to encourage the domestic production of Indian-themed toys, children could soon find access to indigenous toys. Currently, the country’s US$ 1.75 billion toy industry is dominated (90%) primarily from China and Taiwan.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has reached out to large manufacturers as it seeks to lure investment in the country’s toy industry. The government is also considering forming producers’ companies for all the clusters and link all the clusters and artisans with them. Karnataka has already announced a Rs 5,000-crore toy cluster in Koppal. Also in the pipeline is a a national toy fair that children could visit. Further, the government is planning to establish networks of toy labs like Atal Tinkering Lab. This is being done to provide support for physical toys for children to learn, play and also to keep a check the quality of these toys.

This is a significant move because the toy industry in India is primarily in the unorganised sector, comprising around 4,000 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Moreover, as per a survey by the Quality Council of India (QCI), 67% of imported toys failed a testing.