Aksharit
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 | |
| Manufacturers | MadRat Games |
|---|---|
| Publication | 2009 |
| Genres | Word game Board game |
| Players | 2–4 |
| Setup time | 2–6 minutes |
| Playing time | ~50 minutes |
| Chance | Medium (letters drawn) |
| Skills | Vocabulary, spelling, anagramming, strategy, counting |
| Website | http://www.aksharit.com |
Aksharit is a word game for Indian languages, developed and marketed by MadRat Games Pvt. Ltd. It is based on the Hindi language.[1] and loosely inspired by crossword puzzles, but is purportedly designed to have specific pedagogical utility for Hindi language learning. Aksharit is used in 3,000 schools throughout India and has been used by over 300,000 children. It is also available in 10 other major Indian languages, as well as in digital form on Nokia's Symbian3 platform and on Intel AppUp. It has been a recipient of the Manthan Award and has been recognized at conferences such as TechSparks and INKtalks.[2]
Aksharit was conceptualized by Manuj Dhariwal, while he was pursuing his bachelor's degree in design from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, for his final year design project.[3] In 2009, Manuj presented a business plan to market Aksharit at a business plan competition conducted by Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, which he went on to win. Rajat and Madhumita, both graduates in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Bombay, had taken up teaching at Rishi Valley School in Andhra Pradesh. They had devised a number of innovative games to teach their respective courses. The three of them, came together and incorporated MadRat Games Pvt. Ltd in January 2009, with Aksharit as their flagship product.[4] Aksharit is Patent Pending (Patent Number : 294/DEL/2010).