The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) and Invest India, in collaboration with the Toy Association of India, successfully organized a roundtable interaction on “Exploring the India Toy Story”, today in New Delhi. This event coincided with the 14th edition of the India Toy Biz International Expo – one of the largest toy fairs in the country – and brought together prominent global and domestic toy manufacturers, retailers, associations, and government officials to discuss the burgeoning opportunities in the domestic toy sector.
The session was chaired by Shri Rajesh Kumar Singh, Secretary, DPIIT. During his keynote address, Shri Singh highlighted India’s remarkable progress in fortifying the “toyconomy”, with the sector poised to grow exponentially over the coming years. The Secretary further noted the impressive transformation that the sector has also recently witnessed, as exports rose by a staggering 240% in the period from 2014 to 2023, coupled with a significant 52% reduction in toy imports into the country during the same period. Shri Singh said that bolstered by a population of approximately 350 million under the age of 15, the potential for the toy industry and manufacturers in the country is huge. He concluded by applauding the expanding scale, size and technical expertise of local manufacturing that is quickly establishing India as a hub for toy production.
Shrii Sanjiv, Joint Secretary DPIIT, during his remarks expressed gratitude to all stakeholders for their participation at the lively roundtable. He reminded the audience to embrace the vision of “Vocal for Local Toys” as emphasized by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, while also stressing on the urgency and availability of safe, high-quality toys domestically. With both global and Indian players in attendance, Shri Sanjiv ended his address by inviting the companies to formulate strategies that aided in decisively taking the industry forward, and hoped that the insights gained during the event served to unlock the potential that India offers in this key sector.
During the session’s tangible discussions between the attending business and government stakeholders, the industry pointed out their own growth stories and the challenges overcome to increasingly expand their domestic operations. Manu Gupta, Chairman, Toy Association of India, highlighted the achievements of the industry in last few year, especially on the back of more than 9600 registered MSME toy manufacturing units, and 8 GI toy clusters in the country.
Overall, the event saw participation from over 50 attendees, including major domestic manufacturers such as Playgro, Sunlord, Micro-Plastics, Aequs, Funskool, Dream-Plast, among others, that have been at the forefront of the manufacturing revolution in this sector. The vision shared by the speakers allowed the audience to understand the far-reaching developments in the sector till now, as well as experience the momentum that the industry has gained as it quickly enters its next phase of integration into the global toy supply chains.
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