Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa said the Government is going to establish an India’s ‘first toys manufacturing cluster at Koppal. This cluster is having potential to create 40k jobs in five years and attract over Rs. 5k crore investments. Karnataka is the third-largest market for toys in India (USD 159 million) 9.1 per cent of the national market.

Yediyurappa in his tweet said the toy cluster with ecosystem, this acres SEZ will have top-class infra & generate 40,000 jobs in 5 years “In line with PM @narendramodi’s vision of #VocalForLocal & boosting toy manufacturing, Koppala will have India’s first toy manufacturing cluster”. The tweet by the Chief Minister came following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address in his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme, pitching India to become the world’s toy hub.

Modi on Sunday said India has talent and ability to become a toy hub for the entire world and called upon startups to work towards realizing this potential while being “vocal about local toys”. The global toy industry is over Rs seven lakh crore, but India’s share was very small, as he stressed on the need to work to increase it, he said. The Karnataka government is inviting global toy makers to the “first of its kind” toy manufacturing cluster in India at Koppala and had recently held a webinar cum panel discussion with a panel of leading toys manufacturers.

Karnataka is poised to emerge as a leading toy-making cluster in the country due to the robust ecosystem the state has created to support toy making industries, the state government had recently said. It said, the state has supported and nurtured the setting up of Tool Manufacturing & precision engineering (TMTP), polymers manufacturing clusters Bengaluru, Dharwad, Tumkuru and Mysuru, robust design capacity and testing certification agencies in Bengaluru, Dharwad and Koppal and GTTC (Government Tool Room & Training Centre).

With such a dedicated push by the government towards toy manufacturing, the state’s toy industry has grown at a CAGR of 18 per cent (2010-17) and is expected to reach USD 310 million by 2023, it added.