Prayagraj, Jun 28 (IANS): Team Makersclan of Uttar Pradesh's Prayagraj is among the winners of the 'Toycathon 2021' for their board game 'CheMystery' which is based on the theme of 'Learning, Education and Schooling'.

A total of 117 teams have been declared winners of Toycathon 2021 under the different themes.

Abhinav Basak, one of the three members of team Makersclan and Ph.D scholar at IIT Kanpur told reporters that the team had submitted their game idea in the first Toycathon summit of India on January 5, 2021.

This game is meant to teach Chemistry to young kids in a playful and enjoyable manner.

He explained, "This board-based game is an interesting concept where the players are scientists searching for elements throughout the board to convert them into essential compounds. In the course of doing so, it develops a child's critical thinking, planning and decision-making skills as well as encourages interest in children for Chemistry."

This game also educates kids about the applications of the elements and their real-world use thereby making the subject interesting which otherwise is a difficult subject for most of the children.

He further said, "Our team members had an interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 24 through web conferencing about this board game and we feel proud and appreciate the Prime Minister for the suggestions provided by him to us. We are keen on developing and launching this game into national as well as international markets."

The team has a startup incorporated with the name Srijamyham Innovation Pvt Ltd, where the team members, Vivek Banra and Abhinav Basak are visual designers from IIT Kanpur and Neeraj Kr. Singh is a production expert.

The game CheMystery is a product under this brand.

Abhinav claimed that a total of 17,770 ideas were submitted to the Toycathon among which 1,567 teams were shortlisted for participation.

As the government wants to develop our country as an emerging hub for toy ideation and production, seven teams had an interaction session with the Prime Minister where each team explained their game plan.

Toycathon 2021 was jointly launched by the Ministry of Education, WCD Ministry, MSME Ministry, DPIIT, Textile Ministry, I&B Ministry and AICTE on January 5, 2021, to crowd-source innovative toys and games ideas.

Around 1.2 lakh participants from across the country had registered for the event.