Dr. (Ms) Pawan Sudhir is a Professor & Head of Department of Education in Arts and Aesthetics, NCERT, New Delhi, India. With 32+ years of Teacher Education in different capacities, she has been the Project head of 'Art Integrated Learning' (AIL) of NCERT, Delhi, and served as Chairperson of the India Toy Fair (ITF-2021) NCERT/MoE Committee. She is also the adviser for CBSE Guidelines on Art Integrated Education for schools and National Convener 'Kala Utsav' a unique initiative of MoE, Govt. of India. She has represnted india in Workshops on International Perspectives of Research in Arts Education and presented papers nationally and internationally on various aspects of Art Integrated Learning and Art Education for teachers and teacher educators.

Dr. Gayatri Menon is a senior faculty at NID with more than 20 years of experience in design education, research and practice. Her interests include Design thinking, Creativity and Innovation, Play and learning, Systems approach & Design for special needs and has presented papers and conducted workshops nationally and internationally for diverse groups in these areas.

She has guided many design students on projects related to play, education, special needs etc. She was a founding faculty member of PG program in Toy and Game design at NID, a board member of ITRA, International toy research association and part of various expert committees set up by NCERT,India for National Education Policy 2020, Toy based pedagogy etc. She has also worked as a project head-designer on UNIDO projects and heritage craft projects across India

Krister Svensson is an independent researcher on toys, play and child related legislation. He initiated the Master program, Child Culture Design, at Gothenburg university ten years ago. He is the owner of Play Design Sweden AB conducting projects with focus on children’s materialised world, as toys and playgrounds. He is the chairman of the Swedish branch of International Play Association (IPA World). As author of books and articles he participates in bringing new aspects on play material into the understanding of relation between the child and their environment.

Austin Davis is a Associate faculty in Toy and Game Design, NID, As a Game Designer, he worked with multiple platforms of web, consoles and smartphones. He worked on Motion Controller based game (Client : Sony), promotional game for Sholay the movie (Client:Hungama), an app containing educational games with assessment features (Client: Schools) and casual games based on Indian culture and history (Client : Gameveda.com). He has also worked on Board games as a tool to teach serious topics, Educational board games and DIY kits for primary school kids and also pursued his interest in illustrations.He is interested in the domains of Structured Play (Games), Design Thinking through playful tools, Systems Thinking, Form and Material exploration and the passion for the idea of “Learning through Play” remains strong.

Archana D is an alumnus of Toy and Game design, NID and a passionate Tabletop Game Designer, currently associated with Kaadoo as a Product Development Consultant. She has rolled out projects for renowned brands like Disney, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), attributing to more than ten games till date. She has dealt with various game design aspects like Concept Development, Content Generation, Manufacturing, Instruction Writing, User Testing etc. In her endeavour to nurture child development, she also conducts Workshops for children. Further, she aspires to push the boundaries of Tabletop Games in India by making them contextual, playful, affordable, and sustainable.

Sanika Surve is a graduate of Toy & Game Design from NID. While exploring aspects of play; the joy and efficacy of learning through play excited her. Since then, Sanika has been on a journey towards designing hands-on, playful learning experiences.

She has been associated with various start-ups, likes Flintobox and Walnut Express where she designed and developed Play-way & STEAM methodology based activity kits for pre-primary and primary schools. Currently, she is working as a toy and game design consultant.

Swati is a Product Design graduate from NID. She began her career at Magic Crate, developing DIY learning activities for 2 to 8-year-olds. She taught at the Valley School, Bangalore. She acquired an MA in Education at Stanford University, in the Learning Design Technology program. She has since worked with the Museum of Solutions, AgastyaFoundation etc. to provide play and learning-related design input. She currently runs a studio called Jump Design India, which develops products and books in-house and takes up external projects related to play and learning for children.

Pranjal Rai is an alumnus of Toy and Game design, NID. He is designer and educator whose creative practice enables young learners to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills which transcend traditional ways of learning science and technology. He develops curriculum and outreach programs for Design Technology and Resistant materials, guiding students for more than 9 years in international schools in India, Dubai & China. Alongside Pranjal enjoys working in the education sector as a consultant, resource developer and trainer.

Siegfried Zoels is currently the Managing director of Fördern durch Spielmittel e.V. (Toys for Children’s Rehabilitation). He did his Masters in Cultural Sciences and has earlier provided his services as Deputy Mayor in Berlin during1990-1992 and as the Scientific employee, Board of Industrial Design, GDR. He has an experience of Managing of UNESCO creativity workshops for designers, architects, educationalists and therapists in various European countries, Mexico, India, China etc. based on the unique methodology anchored on learning from people with special needs, developed by him in the 1980s.

Dr. Gayatri Menon is a senior faculty at NID with more than 20 years of experience in design education, research and practice. Her interests include Design thinking, Creativity and Innovation, Play and learning, Systems approach & Design for special needs and has presented papers and conducted workshops nationally and internationally for diverse groups in these areas.

She has guided many design students on projects related to play, education, special needs etc. She was a founding faculty member of PG program in Toy and Game design at NID, a board member of ITRA, International toy research association and part of various expert committees set up by NCERT,India for National Education Policy 2020, Toy based pedagogy etc. She has also worked as a project head-designer on UNIDO projects and heritage craft projects across India

Dr. Romila Soni is an Associate Professor with Department of Elementary Education, National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), New Delhi. She is working in the area of ECE since last 30 years and enjoy her passion. She is involved in developing materials for teachers, teacher educators, parents and children, conducting training programmes, and research in the area of ECE. She has wide experience in development of curriculum and learning materials for ECE kit. She has many published articles, research papers to her credit. She has authored around thirteen books in ECE for teachers and teacher educators published by NCERT, New Delhi.

Noshita Sahu is a Toy and game desinger from NID. Her course has led her on board achieving 6 Years of experience gained during working on International Toy Industry like Hape, Educational All and Firstcry.com as a professional Play - Toy - Concept Designer. She has also been currently exploring Indian Toy and Educational Industry catering to Play and Development needs for various target user age groups. Her areas of interest are Futuristic Toy and Game Design, Consumer need centric Products, Material, R&D Product Development. (Play/ Edutainment/ Disability/Corporate Sector. She is currently Senior Product Designer at Firstcry.com

Charvi Mantri, a Toy and Game designer from NID, has been working in the area of Designing Educational Board Games.She enjoys working on projects that can create even a small impact on the bigger problem that needs solving. She has also worked on projects for early onset autism and dyslexia with a hyper focus on smaller problems within the whole spectrum.

Athul Dinesh is an NID graduate from Universal Design, Banglore. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Commerce and Manufactures, London, United Kingdom and was granted the fellowship after winning the Student Design Awards 2021 for his project ," Four Walls''. He was also awarded the Kokuyo International for the creation of "Paletteballet". At present, he works as an Independent Designer and a Teaching Assistant at NID Bengaluru with a interest in the design of Systems, services and products, including the creation of simple fidget toys for systems that solve complex social issues.

Tanya Prasad is a Product Design Graduate from NID, Ahmedabad. She is deeply interested in the field of education, pedagogy, curriculum development, and Mental Health and works towards an inclusive approach of integrating them into the current system. She is the Founder, Director of Out of Syllabus Foundation which aims to create an open platform for adolescents and is practicing as a visiting faculty in various design colleges in India for System thinking, design process, and Design research.

"Prof. Sudarshan Khanna is design educator, innovator and consultant. He was Principal Designer at the National Institute of Design Ahmedabad, India. He established Post Graduate Program in Toy & Game Design at NID.

Prof. Sudarshan Khanna is the past president of ITRA (International Toy Research Association) and founder Chairperson of “Toys for Tomorrow”- vision-action international forum.

Prof.Sudarshan Khanna has been invited by institutes & universities all over the world to present his work on Indian toy design, culture & innovations and to conduct workshops. Author of three books and numerous articles on toy design, culture and creative education, he featured in many educational TV programs. "

Surabhi Khanna is Faculty, Industrial Design at NID Haryana (NIDH), Kurukshetra. She has done architecture and masters in Toy & Game Design (NID). Since 2010, she has worked on projects related to heritage, innovation, culture-based design. Surabhi has developed courses and electives related to playful design concepts. She has conducted design and education workshops for teachers, trainers, professionals and children at several organisations and schools in India and abroad. Her work and approach is towards encouraging and experiencing play and creativity. Her work and activities can be seen on www.surabhikhanna.com.

Hemasiva is a Toy Designer and a Design Educator who is working for younger minds to enhance creative thinking skills in school level. He did master’s in industrial design from NID and graduation in Fine Arts from Andhra University. He is from Etikoppaka, Andhra Pradesh which is famous for wooden lacquer craft. His father is a master craftsman in wooden lacquer with 45 plus years’ experience. Hemasiva has also been practicing this craft from the age of 10, which adds to his hands-on working experience with different kinds of material. He worked with wooden toy craft clusters to help them reach the premium market with innovative designs.

Shekhar Bhattacharjee is a faculty at NID in the field of Toy and Game Design. He has master’s degree in painting from Indira Kala Sangit Vishwavidyalay, Khairagarh, Chhattisgarh and was actively engaged with traditional crafts communities in Bastar, Chhattisgarh, India. He conducted creativity workshops with children before he joined NID’s Faculty Development Programme. He has been contributing in the areas of Design Drawing, Colour and Form, Representation Techniques, Nature drawing, Character design, Material- Technique and Model Making, Nature and Design, Toy Design project and so on.

Pravinsinh Solanki is an Associate Senior Faculty at NID. Solanki currently Heads the Skill Development Labs, Staff Evaluation & Development Committee and In- chair for Swachhata Pakhwada committe.

Solanki teaches courses like Design Thinking, Space planning, Furniture Design, Collapsibility, Construction and Fabrication, Materials, Sustainable hands-on workshops, and Bamboo Craft. An alumnus of NID with Master in Furniture and Interior Design, Solanki has cumulative 15 years of work experience in India and Italy on various Interior, Retail Design, Craft , Product, Sustainable, skill development and design innovation in Crafts. He joined NID in 2013.

I am a designer, craft-preneur working in the craft segment past 6 years and practising in the field of art, craft and design last 16 years. I am post graduate in Industrial design from NID. Conducted a couple of craft projects across India with NID. The exposure in craft segment gave a boost to commence the business in craft sector. The brand ‘Chhapak' has presence pan India through Online and Offline retail stores in Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat and Mumbai.

Our retail store clients are: Craftroots, NIDUS, IIM-A, The Project Cafe, HOMG, Bandhej, Cafe Tilla, VSS, Maalgadi, Jaya He- museum stores.

Corporate clients- Motherson Sumi and Direct Create(Reliance Foundation)

Based on my expertise we are developing contemporary playful products, which can be used as an office accessory, home decor, stationary or gifting. As a design educator- contribute to my expertise with various design colleges as- NID, Nirma, UID, MRID, VGU.

Eva Brooks is Professor in IT-based Design, Learning and Innovation at the Department of Culture and Learning, Aalborg University, Denmark. Her research has a sociocultural focus on participation, social interaction, and the use and development of digital technology and their implications for play and learning. Her research also includes an innovation dimension, where she applies a design-oriented approach to co-creative processes with children. She has been involved in several research projects concerning children’s participation, play, and learning in state-of-the-art technology settings. Currently, her research also has a focus on teachers’ professional digital competence grounded in creative workshops where the learning is participative, collaborative and peer-oriented.

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Vivek Padmaji is the founder of RockLobster games, an indie studio working on its debut game. He is an alumnus of the Toy and Game Design department from the 2015 batch. Post-graduation, he has worked at Ubisoft India, Pune, Appymonkeys Software Pvt Ltd, Bangalore, and Imaginate technologies, Hyderabad before starting his own game studio 'RockLobster Games'.

Vivek Padmaji is the founder of RockLobster games, an indie studio working on its debut game. He is an alumnus of the Toy and Game Design department from the 2015 batch. Post-graduation, he has worked at Ubisoft India, Pune, Appymonkeys Software Pvt Ltd, Bangalore, and Imaginate technologies, Hyderabad before starting his own game studio 'RockLobster Games'.

He is passionate about playing games, making games, and teaching game design and development. This passion motivated him to switch careers from Aerospace engineering to Game design. His interests include mixed reality technologies, design mentoring, puzzle games, and digitized board games.

An astute visualizer who loves to interpret ideas and thoughts in meaningful ways, I am the Head of Player Experience at Bigfatphoenix Interactive. At Bigfatphoenix Interactive, we believe that Play and Learning are not mutually exclusive. We are building first-party, fun video games that can help kids grow into mature, confident, and compassionate adults.

A game lover since childhood, my career in games began when I finished my Masters in Game Design from the National Institute of Design and started with Dhruva Interactive. With over 8 years of industry experience in making games, I have worked with Dhruva Interactive, Byju’s, Bigfatphoenix Interactive and delivered hit products such as Heidi- Alpine Adventure, Sara’s Cooking Class, Disney-Byju’s Early Learn, and more.

Chandradip Rana is a multidisciplinary designer currently working as the head of design at Digital jalebi Solutions pvt ltd. His love for design and technology has helped him blend both the worlds together to create beautiful and meaningful experiences. In 8 years of his practice he has worked extensively for educational game design, Serious Games, VR and AR applications and communication design.

Lalon is an artist-designer and NID alumni based out of Ahmedabad. He has worked on design intervention projects in the craft sector and developed designs for toys and accessories for grass root artisans across India. Lalon also enjoys working with various media including music, theatre, drama, television series and short films as writer, actor and director. He has anchored the TV Show "The art room" for ZeeQ for 2 seasons and produced episodes for Sony in which he merges DIY with storytelling for children. Currently, he is also pursuing PhD in the area of introducing creativity and design to children through hands on approaches.

Ali Shirkarami has studied Master of Educational Technology at Allameh Tabataba'i University in Iran. All of his projects in university involved children’s need for education and play. His interest has always been to blend play and learning so the process of learning becomes more appealing. Ali has designed several concept games and toys all with an educational sense. Since 2015 he has been working with “Ideaazad toy event” (a platform for accelerating toy and game ideas) as the event coordinator.

He has also been on the scientific and educational committee at the Iran National Toy festival since 2018 and become the International events coordinator in the Sixth Iran National Toy Festival which washeld in Jan- Feb 2021.

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Prof. B. K. Chakravarthy teaches Innovation by Design at the IDC School of Design, IIT Bombay.he has set up the Shenoy Innovation Studio at IITB, where students and young designers are given the opportunity to work on live projects within an academic setup, Prof. Chakravarthy also works closely with other academics at IIT Bombay who are engaged in cutting-edge research in diverse fields.

For numerous contributions to teaching, innovation and entrepreneurship at IIT Bombay, he was awarded the Institute Chair Professorship in 2015. Prof. Chakravarthy’s research encompasses areas such as Innovation, Creativity and Aesthetic Perception. He is the author of ‘A Collaborative Model for New Product Innovation’, an outcome of his doctoral research.

Dr. Koumudi Patil is an Associate Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Design Programme in the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. She is a board member of the International Toy Research Association. She has been working with toymakers of Varanasi since 2008, having designed a museum of craft, developed a creative visualisation software for craftspeople, and held several training workshops. She is currently leading the National initiative of the Government of India on Rural Craft and Artisans Development & Rural Industrialization and Entrepreneurship Development, under the aegis of the UBA programme. She is on the Advisory board of Center for Research and Innovation in Frugal Technology, Science City Center, Lucknow and the Rajya Shiksha Kendra (educational division) of the Government of Mandhya Pradesh.

With over a decade of experience in diverse areas of design — Toys, Games, Lifestyle products & User Experience, Madhuri loves to explore various facets of design. As a Design Head at the start-up Flinto Learning Solutions, she was instrumental in creating a strong design foundation for their brands Flintobox and Flintoclass. Prior to that, she designed mobility products and bicycles for children with India's leading bicycle manufacturer, TI Cycles. She currently works as an Experience Design Consultant at Infosys to innovate their digital design experiences. She’s an alumnus of Toy and Game Design from the National Institute of Design.

Austin Davis prefers to call himself a “Play Experience Designer” who is passionate about the idea of “Learning + Problem-solving through PLAY”. After completing his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering he pursued his masters in Toy & Game Design discipline at the National Institute of Design. This is where he discovered the beautiful world of “play”. He continued his journey by taking up projects in the domain of Game Design for digital platforms as well as physical ones. After juggling between projects for the purpose of leisure & entertainment, games as a promotional tool, child development & professional training, he realized his interest in the area of “structured play”. Since then he has been in the pursuit of discovering frameworks for coming up with design intervention through the abstract, but yet so natural, the experience of PLAY. And his journey continues as a faculty at his alma mater where it all began.

Ms. Alka Nangia Arora, is the Chairman cum Managing Director (CMD) of The National Small Industries Corporation Ltd. (NSIC) is an industry veteran with over 30 years of the experience in diverse activities across the country. She has served as Joint Secretary in Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises and she has also served major positions in Government of India such as Additional Commissioner Handicrafts, Ministry of Textiles, Managing Director, Cottage Emporium, and Integrated Financial Advisor to the Western Air Command (Subroto Park) & FA Army Hospital (R & R). She has also served in various capacities with the Navy as a FA to Naval Dockyard & Joint Controller Defence Accounts (Mumbai) & as FA to Eastern Command Army (Kolkata).

Ms.Kanaka Ananth is Director of Maniams Marketing Services Pvt Ltd a design studio based in Coimbatore. She is an architect and an industrial designer/ toy designer from the first batch of Toy Design, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad .She has been a design educator and has more than 15 years of work experience, spanning which she has mentored more than 500 design students. She has been the board of advisor of the CHILD magazine which is part of the transasia group, USA. She has previously worked with companies such as Creative Educational Aids Pvt Ltd, Delhi, Funskool India Ltd, Chennai etc. She has numerous games to her credit such as Fast Track, Amazing me etc.

Prateekshankar Dixit is a designer, illustrator, and a pet parent. He is currently the Associate Director of Design at Cleartax where he is trying to solve problems and find opportunities in the Financial sector through Design strategy and creative processes. An alumnus of Toy and Game design from NID, Prateek always finds ways of using elements of play and gamification in all his projects.

A brand strategist and industrial designer trained at NID, Krishan is also an illustrator who can draw using both hands, a magician, singer, poet, comedian, teacher and everything else he is yet to try. Equipped with experience in Germany, he now contributes to a diverse range of design projects as Lead Industrial Designer and Brand Strategist at Sideways Consulting. With them, he is also the lead of the Joint Venture of Toys & Games Design with Hamleys (RBL). His love for different art forms and meeting new people led him to start Fluid, a community that creates inspiring experiences through poetry, story-telling, magic and music. He shares his creative methods through talks and workshops at Welingkar Institute of Management & Pearl Academy, and in corporate training sessions.

Mr. Manish Kukreja joined the organisation as a Director in 1995. Coming from an Engineering background, Mr. Kukreja, is an industry leader with experience in marketing & product development. As a dynamic leader and CEO of the organisation, Mr. Kukreja focused on bringing-in modern techniques of designing and manufacturing toys to make them more appealing to the present generation.