First-ever conclave on assistive technology comes to Bangalore

24th August 2019
First-ever conclave on assistive technology  comes to Bangalore
Rahul Dravid, Priyank Kharge and other delegates at the Assistive Technology conclave in Bangalore, August 23 2019

Bangalore, August 24, 2019: Disability-focused NGO Samarthanam, has held  India’s first-ever Assistive Technology Conclave,  focused on Tech Startups for Disability.
The  half-day event  brought together some of the best assistive technology startups, investors and leaders from corporate and social sector to discuss the current opportunities and challenges of the ecosystem and discuss ways to collaborate and help the disabled population.
Veteran cricketer, Rahul Dravid  was  Chief Guest at which  and Priyank Kharge (Former Minister of Social Welfare, Government of Karnataka) and Kumar Naik, IAS, Principal Secretary, Department of Social Welfare, GOK were present
Dravid kickstarted the Conclave by inaugurating the ATA Lab (Samarthanam HSR) after two separate panel discussions were held on Assistive Technology topics.
Assistive Technology Accelerator (ATA) has been working towards creating more awareness about the world of disability .Last month, ATA caught the attention of one of the top podcasters in the tech world– Neil Patel, who featured them in his  Indian Startup Show.
 In its latest report, World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that over a billion people around the world live with disabilities today. In India , the number of people registered with disability accounts for over 21 million, 2.1% of the country's s population.
Prateek Madhav, CEO, Assistive Technology Accelerator said, “As home to one of the largest population of the disabled, we have an opportunity to develop solutions that not just impact lives locally, but also around the world. However, assistive technology remains to be a segment unknown to many, even within the technology, startup and corporate ecosystems. AT Conclave is the first step towards building a more robust support system for these startups, and realize their full potential with likeminded investors, corporates and partners”.
 Mahantesh GK, Founder Managing Trustee of Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled said “Because of our strong vision of Technology and inclusion, we believe that the ATA initiative is going to be a big enabler touching many more lives. Samarthanam has always forayed in the field of disability empowerment, providing technology education such as voice to text and text to speech recognition, digital and audio books and services to people who are visually, speech/hearing impaired and with other disabilities, to build productive lives. We must leave no stone unturned in building several infrastructure services and digital products to enable the lives of the disabled."