The Software Technology Park of India under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) are working to establish an assistive technology (AT) Hub comprising one centralized virtual hub and three physical hubs at eminent institutes including IIT-BHU, Varanasi.
The stakeholders had consultations on Thursday to deliberate on the way forward for AT with participation from the Department of Empowerment of persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), IIT Delhi, IIIT Delhi, ICMR, UNESCO, ILO, National Institute of Urban Affairs, AIIMS among others. “The demand for AT is highly fragmented and yet to evolve as a formal industry in our country.
STPI is excited at the AT’s potential in making a more inclusive and equitable world, besides tremendous business opportunities,” said Dr Devesh Tyagi, Senior Director, STPI during the AT Conclave.
Assistive technology (AT) is an umbrella term for assistive products and their related systems and services that enables disabled people to live healthy, productive, independent, and dignified lives. “WHO says 2.5 billion people globally require at least one assistive device indicating a huge market. With the current focus of the government on establishing India as a manufacturing giant, this is an opportune moment for us to strive to grab a big pie of this target market,” said Arman Ali, Executive Director, NCPEDP.
Other experts at the consultation comprised Ravinder Singh, Indian Council of Medal Research (ICMR); Hitesh Vaidya, National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA); Gagan Bawa, Accenture; Vishal Thakur, NASSCOM Foundation; Preeti Sridhar, Mariwala Health Initiative, among others.