The hackathon has invited "India's innovative minds to conceptualize novel toys and games which are based on Indian history, civilization, ethos, and culture”.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked students and faculty members of higher education institutes to participate in track 2 of Toycathon 2021 — a hackathon to create toys. Interested candidates can apply at toycathon.mic.gov.in. The last date to apply is January 20 and winners will get prizes worth Rs 50 lakh.

“All vice-chancellors of universities and principals of colleges are requested to share this initiative with students and faculty of their respective institutions and encourage them to actively participate in the Toycathon 2021,” UGC stated in its official notice.

The Toycathon 2021 has invited “India’s innovative minds to conceptualize novel toys and games which are based on Indian history, civilization, ethos, and culture. It provides an opportunity to our students to design toys and games that will greatly help India develop into a global hub for toys and games and assist our children to understand the ethos and values of Indian culture as envisaged in the National Education Policy 2020,” the official notice by the UGC said.

The Toycathon is based on nine themes — Indian culture, history, knowledge of India and ethos; learning, education, and schooling; social and human values; occupations and specific fields; environment; divyang ; fitness and sport; out of the box, creative and logical thinking and rediscovering/redesigning traditional Indian toys.

The Toycathon will have three variants of tracks — Junior, senior, and start-up level — and will allow participation of students and teachers from schools, colleges, and universities apart from startups and toy experts. Participants will have two options for idea submission; they can either submit ideas for the published problem statements or under the novel toy concepts category.

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