The average age of an entrepreneur in India is roughly 28 years maybe give or take a few years. This January we came across two entrepreneurs who have a dream to make it big but they themselves are just a couple of pre-teens.
Among the bigwigs of the startup industry like Flipkart's Sachin Bansal and Uber's Travis Kalanick the other day, were two young boys concealing excitement with an idea of their own. Abhijit Premji(12) and Amarjjit Premji(10) had been invited to join the launch of "Startup India. Standup India" all the way from Kerela. These boys are toys enthusiasts. Bored of the same old monster trucks and the clapping clown, they decided to make their own toys. They would dismantle their toys and then using the parts make something new entirely! They played their one-minute movie at the event, summarizing their zeal and creativity while their parents sat there beaming with pride. Like any other venture or entrepreneur they had a similar reason for starting up, a desire to come up with a solution to a problem. This time, the problem turned out to be their own, and they used their creativity to alleviate it.
Their dreams started to take shape on Independence Day last year, when the boys, after hearing the PM's speech asked their father, "Dad, what's meant by a startup?" They have come a long way and their recently launched website indianhomemadetoys.com (IHT) is a host to numerous toys available for online purchase. The boys call their this online startup as 'smart-up'.
Abhijit the older brother thinks that rather buying toys, parents should get their kids kits or raw material and give them the freedom to make something unique and fun! Apart from youtube, the kids have their grandfather to thank for because it was him who helped nurture the spark of creativity.
Mr Premjith, the proud father of these two wonder kids, who is an automobile engineer, says, "I was pleasantly surprised to see their creations. Some of them are applications of theoretical concepts often taught to engineering students."
The kids have a huge variety of toys may be more than your neighboring toy store. These kids use whatever they can get their hands on and with a little bit of creativity, voila they have a new toy. Looking at their collection you will realise some of the raw materials are simple household things like plastic bottles, Thermocol, basic electronic equipment etc. Our young entrepreneurs are helped but some videos on youtube that give them the required guidance and sometimes ideas.
The toy market is flooded with toys from China and Italy and you can see only a few Indian manufacturers on the shelf. Another problem is that these imported toys are sometimes made out of harmful substances that might be dangerous but since there are no regulations to keep a check on that, they cross over into India with ease. Another major roadblock for Indian manufacturers is the availability of good quality raw materials at an affordable cost, which holds them back. The Indian toy industry is estimated at 8000 crores but sadly only 20% of this is met by Indian manufacturers. But seeing the enthusiasm in these kids and the sparkle in their eyes, we can expect a change in the trend.
Advertisements