TOYCATHON FINALE 2021- PHYSICAL EDITION

 THE TOYCATHON EXPERIENCE: 

What is Toycathon ?

Under the ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ initiated by our Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri. Narendra Modi, Toycathon-2021 is conceived to challenge India’s innovative minds to conceptualize novel Toy and Games based on Bharatiya civilization, history, culture, mythology and ethos.

Toycathon 2021 is an inter-ministerial initiative organized by Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell with support from All India Council for Technical Education, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of MSME, Ministry of Textiles and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Currently, India’s toy market stands at around 1.5 Billion USD, which primarily is dominated by imported toys. Moreover, majority of these toys do not represent Indian heritage, civilization and value systems.Toycathon 2021 is a unique opportunity for Students, Teachers, Start-ups and Toy experts/professionals in India to submit their innovative toys/games concepts and win large number of prizes worth Rs. 50 lakhs.

Our team designed an educational board game named " Incredible India!", which received great appreciation from the jury. This blog is all about this experience.

Round 1: To submit an idea under the chosen theme out of a plenty of available themes.

Ideas shortlisted for finals.

GRAND FINALE:

We had submitted 3 ideas under different themes out of which one was qualified for the grand finale. According to the requirements of making the toy, we had to submit a bill of materials(BOM) as a confirmation of participating in the grand finale. 

It happened in 4 different nodal centers in and around Delhi. We were allotted to NSUT , Delhi.

Day 1: INAUGURATION

Toycathon began with an inaugural ceremony at 8:30 am on 24th May 2022. It was presided by chief guests and other AICTE officials. Post this local inauguration there was a central inauguration at 10:00 am. All other nodal centers along with the central ministry had a virtual inauguration via video conferencing and connecting all the participants from various nodal centers together.

Post this ceremony all the teams were allotted tables and fixed positions for the rest of the Toycathon. Post this we were supposed to receive the materials requested on the BOM. But since it got delayed due to some managerial issues we proceeded with the basic materials that we had. To work with limited accessibility to 3d printers, laser cutting machines, and other required materials was an unexpected challenge.

All the teams were allocated to different panels. A panel comprised of 4-5 evaluators headed by a chairman. This panel reviewed our work constantly and provided feedback and emphasized areas for improvement.

Our first mentoring session was at 5:00 pm. post which we received a lot of improvements, changes and enhancements to be made on our initial idea. To implement all of them needed a lot of effort and time. With not much time in hand, we worked overnight and were able to come close to their expectations before the next mentoring session which was scheduled at next 9:00 am the next morning.

Day 2:

Grabbing small power naps here and there we were ready for the next session. Where we received more corrections and also an appreciation for the improvements we had worked on. Again started grinding on it. Since we had to showcase all of these progress along with a 2 min presentation video before 4:00 pm -That was when the final mentoring was scheduled. We did as expected and got qualified for the power judging round.

The power judging round was evaluated by all the panel's chairmen together. The top 8 teams qualified for the power judging round where we get to showcase our product with all the market analysis and suggested improvements in less than 5 minutes. While making it to the top 8 teams was super exciting, presenting in front of all the competing participants and highly qualified evaluators was nerve-wracking.

After a quite satisfactory presentation and with no expectations, there we were with the audience, gratifying  other team’s innovations. And very quickly it was the time to announce results. And guess what? We were declared the first winners!!

Although my teammates guessed it earlier, it was unexpected for me! We were awarded a cash prize of INR 25,000 and were highly elated. 

It wasn’t just about winning this title but it was all about the journey to this position. It was about the mentors we got to meet, the networking we got to do, their guidance, support, and words of encouragement throughout the toycathon. It is this enriched learning experience that I will cherish forever.