Mumbai, 21st–22nd August
A two-day workshop at Don Bosco Industrial Training Institute (ITI), Kurla, gave engineering and ITI students a rare chance to do something most of them had only read about: make their own mould and then use it to make their own product, from start to finish.
The workshop, called “Moulds: Think…Design…Create”, was organised by the Global South Convergence Forum (GSCF), in association with Don Bosco ITI Kurla, and supported by Shipkar. Tooling Tales was the media partner for the event.
The idea behind the workshop is simple. Every object around us, from car parts to toys to shaped chocolates, starts with a mould. But very few people, even those studying engineering, understand how a mould is actually made or why it works the way it does. The organisers call this understanding “mould-thinking”, the ability to look at any object and know how it was made. To teach this, the workshop used silicone. It’s easy to work with, shows mistakes clearly, and helps students understand basic ideas like why air needs to escape a mould or why every mould needs a way to release the finished part.
On the first day, students learnt the basics of mould-making and then made their own silicone mould using a sample part. On the second day, they used that same mould to cast their own final product. They also checked their results, spotted mistakes, and discussed what could be improved, a step the organisers say is just as important as the making itself.
By the end of the two days, every student walked away with a mould they had made themselves and a product cast from it.
The workshop was led by Paresh R. Batra, a manufacturing entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in the silicone mould industry. He has worked with clients ranging from luxury brands to NGOs and brought that real-world experience into the sessions.
What stood out most, however, was how the students responded. Most of them were between 18 and 20 years old, still early in their engineering education. One student, after finishing his first product, said he could now see himself becoming a manufacturer someday, a simple line, but one that captured exactly what the workshop set out to do.
India’s manufacturing sector has long faced a shortage of skilled, hands-on talent. Workshops like this offer a practical way to close that gap, not through more lectures, but by putting real tools in students’ hands early on.
For Tooling Tales, covering this event as a media partner was a reminder of why such initiatives matter. Skill-building in manufacturing works best when it happens on the workbench, not just in textbooks.
Workshop details: The workshop, “Moulds: Think…Design…Create”, was held on 21st–22nd August at Don Bosco ITI, Kurla, Mumbai. It was organised by the Global South Convergence Forum (www.gscforum.org), in association with Don Bosco ITI Kurla Mumbai, and supported by Shipkar (www.shipkar.com). Tooling Tales (www.toolingtales.com) was the media partner.