India’s First Conclave Focused on Tech Start-ups on Disability

Around a year ago, India saw the idea of the first Assistive Technology Accelerator take form and shape, it came into effect with a cohort of three start-ups in the Assistive Technology space that would get support in the form of mentors, access to disability ecosystem and so much more. The year of 2019 has now come to full fruition with 8 start ups being selected as part of ATA Enable Summer’19 cohort. The announcement happened at the first edition of the ATA conclave that brought the conversations around assistive tech and the landscape in India to the fore.

The event launched ATA formally and brought together the entire ecosystem. The Vision, Mission and areas of collaboration with the ecosystem were outlined and shared. With the advancements in technology, the impact on the world and specifically healthcare, assistive technology is gaining massive interest as it solves various levels of problems that are encountered by the differently – abled. In context of reach, this caters to all areas of disability from geriatric to temporary and permanent disability which is a considerable segment of the population. ATA’s focus is to empower the ecosystem and create the necessary levers to drive it in the right direction.

Prateek Madhav, CEO, ATA and the man behind the idea took us through the context of what ATA was all about and how the impact would be enabled across the board. He also spoke about how the vision of ATA was to empower business success and look at what can be done beyond building and creating an ecosystem and reaching beyond the current means to help the start-ups in their journeys and also assist in go to market in cases where it is relevant. Prateek also brought in the context of diversity and inclusion and how we still have a long way to go. He spoke about meeting founders of start-ups who are passionate and leave their comfortable corporate jobs to go after what they believe in and how they aren’t treated as equals in the traditional start-up ecosystem. Addressing the lack of awareness and knowledge issue in context of disability, he spoke about how ATA was set-up to counter this and to give the right kind of support to these start-ups.

Mahantesh GK, Founder Managing Trustee of Samarthanam, spoke about the 22-year young journey of Samarthanam itself and the many initiatives that were fostered under its wing and their successes. He spoke about the impact that Samarthanam is creating within the ecosystem and how the community of the disabled are getting access to opportunities and the vision to reach 100,000 lives every year. He then spoke about AI and machine learning which is a huge advantage when it comes to creating equal opportunities and equality for the disabled and how ATA would work towards achieving this.

Priyank M Kharge, member of Indian National Congress (INC) and Karnataka Legislative Assembly, in his articulate and witty address spoke about how the government can also play a huge role in bridging the technology gap and that technology should reach all and enable not just fancy innovations, but technology that encourages innovation and inventions that can actually change lives. He gladly extended his support offer of funding and resources for this initiative. He also said its time for corporations and entrepreneurs to look at social innovations as their responsibility. He encouraged the cohort and the ecosystem and shared some mind-boggling numbers and how the right collaborations can truly scale and be the change.

The fireside chat with Rahul Dravid had him speak about how the work Samarthanam is exciting and humbling and how the government needs to be applauded for the good work that happens. He also said that in his area of work, they are so far from the reality and how lending a face and a voice from their side can take the good work out to the masses.

The fireside chat had Prateek traverse through the five themes of – leadership, creativity, talent development, decision making and failure and risk. The conversation explored teams and the vision of the team and the context of the leader. It looked at how good leadership is about how to get everyone to collaborate and work together. He also spoke about how leaders can get people around them to rally together and about leading in changing times. In the context of creativity, they spoke about the ability to allow people to think and express themselves without the fear of failure and know that the expectations are different and how creativity can get incredible results.

The conversation around talent development looked at the changing ecosystem and how passion and drive and trying to make the best out of who they can be and let themselves be the best versions of themselves. They also touched upon how the loop of learning is a full circle. They also drew parallels to how creating the right environment in sport or in organizations brings out talent. The topic of decision-making looked at how we don’t empower our kids to take decisions as a society and we take almost all the decisions for them growing up. They spoke about how decision-making should be nurtured in an environment to make decisions.

Speaking about failure, they touched upon how you should seek and look for failure and to fail well versus failing badly and about how failure should not let us lose out on opportunities, but to learn what to fix and what to do better. The focus then shifted to how failure teaches empathy and humility and knowing that failure can come at any point in time and is not a reflection on you and how it teaches you so much. All of this with anecdotal cricketing examples but look how rich the conversation was even in context of entrepreneurship and how well each point resonates.

We then had Ravi Narayan (CEO, T-Hub & ATA Advisory Board member) addressed the gathering and he spoke about how monumental this was for the industry and spoke about how his own entrepreneurial journey and what it takes for a successful start-up and the ecosystem that is needed for success. He also spoke about profitable start-up journeys versus those that are modelled around social impact and the challenges that they deal with and how they need attention. He then spoke about creating the right environment to help them reach the masses for true impact and about how the aim was to create many more ATAs to help boost the impact. He thanked the advisory board for their contribution and called out their efforts in the whole process.

ATA also had the 8-member cohort announced of Assistive Tech start-ups that were selected this year that would be mentored over the next 16-18 weeks by the advisory board on various aspects in context of their business. Providing access to the market is one of the primary goals and vision for ATA and hopes to empower these start-ups. 200+ start-ups applied, 22 presented and the top 8 were picked for the year. The plan is also to work with the rest of the community and the others from the list to enable them as well.

How to Shape the Future of the Assistive Technology Ecosystem and its impact on the world was the first panel and it had Mohan Sundaram (CEO & Founding Director, Artilab Foundation) who was the moderator, Gaurav Mittal (Co-Founder, Eye-D), Jeevan Reddy Anupalli (Lead Accessibility Consultant, Edgeverve), Suryaprakash (Ex-SVP, Digital Head, Infosys & ATA Advisory Board member) and Gopal Srinivasa (Microsoft Research Accessibility Team) deliberating the various aspects around the challenges in the ecosystem and how to empower the entire landscape into tangible action.

Market access and opportunities for Assistive Technology was the second panel with Jawahar Bekay (Executive Chairman, TAO: The Automation Office & ATA Advisory Board member) who moderated the panel with Basavaraju Siddalingaiah (State Commissioner Disabilities Karnataka), Madan Padaki ( Co-Founder & CEO, 1BRIDGE), Deepa S (Lead Diversity & Inclusion, APJ at EMC) and Surabhi Srivastava (Co-founder at Innovision) who discussed the ground realities of awareness and what needed to change to open full opportunities and shape the dynamics of the market.

In the first edition of India’s First Conclave Focused on Tech Start-ups on Disability, a lot was discussed and deliberated, and the journey is just beginning. With the ATA conclave every year, the hope is to bring to the fore the context and the landscape of change to the fore and start sparking conversations to do more in the space of assistive tech collectively.