Game Theories

Das talks of the immense potential Indian toys have, if designed and marketed well. "We have the manufacturing capacity," he says, "but not the wherewithal to utilise that capacity to full advantage." It is here that he thinks the IITs can step in and create toys that can not just entertain children but be intellectually stimulating as well.

Everyone is agreed on the potential of the market. TAI estimates Indian toys contribute less than 0.5 per cent of the trade which stands at $10 billion. "It's time we recognised the potential of the market and applied ourselves to it," says Sunil Nanda, vice president, TAI.

The effort seems to be bearing fruit, if one were to go by how Tangle is doing. Conceptualised by IIT Mumbai, it is a two-player game where a child has to pre-empt and block moves by his opponent, quite like chess, but not really the same. Priced at Rs 125, it was introduced recently and, according to Ravindra Porwal of Olympia Games and Toys in Mumbai, is doing well in the market. "With toys like these, we can go to the international market," he says.

Things hadn't looked up for the Indian toy industry ever since toys had been removed from the restricted list of imports in 2000 and customs duty reduced from 80 per cent to 35 per cent as per the wto agreement two years later. As a result, initially, professional importers started dumping the Indian market with cheap toys. Unable to keep up with the competition, 40 per cent of the small manufacturers had to shut shop.

When it realised the beating Indian exports—around $25 million crores for 2002—were taking as a result of its measures, the Indian government decided to undo some of the damage. It launched a National Programme for the Development of the Toy Industry in association with UNIDO and TAI in 2002. The project, however, has taken off only in recent days.

"For too long," says former IIT Mumbai lecturer Kiran Kulkarni, "have we imitated global markets and ignored our Indian manufacturers who made traditional toys. We have to shift the cultural focus of toys and look at our own capacity." Kulkarni has designed a game that encourages mountain climbing and teaches a thing or two about trekking in the hills. Another game—Discover India—acquaints the player with the geography of India in engaging edutainment.

Toy manufacturers are upbeat about all this activity. The industry's present retail turnover is Rs 1,200 crore in the organised sector, and Rs 2,300 crore in the unorganised sector, with an annual growth rate of 12 per cent. And though China and Hong Kong retain the lion's share—around 60 per cent—in the global export of toys, which is estimated to be around $110 billion, the depreciation of the Chinese currency against the Indian rupee could be a setback for them and a bonus for us. Equally encouraging is the trend of American and European toymakers and traders seeking alternative manufacturing bases in Southeast Asia. And with the IITs playing their part, this is one toy story sure to have a happy ending.