• Government has approved three dusters in Madhya Pradesh, two in Rajasthan, and one each in Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
• These clusters will manufacture toys made of wood, lac, palm leaves, bamboo and fabric.
About:
• Clusters are to be developed under existing schemes such as Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI).
• Two toy clusters are currently being implemented in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh under Sfurti.
• SFRUTI offers incentives such as skill development, capacity building, creation of facilities such as common facility centres, rehousing facilities and marketing and e-commerce assistance to local industries.
Need to promote local toy industry:
• India imported around $1.5 billion worth toys in 2020, with China and Taiwan accounting for around 90% of domestic toy market.
• Study by Quality Council of India (QCI) had revealed that 67% of imported toys failed a testing
survey, prompting an aggressive effort to produce safe toys locally.
• Currently toy industry in India is primarily unorganised, comprising around 4,000 MSMEs.
• Toy market can bring transformative change through vocal for local.
• Furthering the spirit of Ek Baharat, Shreshtha Bharat.
———————————————
Mains Paper 2: Governance
Prelims level: Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries
Mains level: Need to promote local toy industry