Centre launches four AI Missions, including, National UBI and Chatbot AI digital technologies for the disabled
Bengaluru: The Government of India's Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, in collaboration with Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO) here on Friday at The National Conference on AI for Empowering Persons with Disabilities launched four major digital and technology missions to aid persons with disabilities in receiving government and societal services in the areas of education, healthcare, livelihood, and everyday life.
The four missions, Mission AI Accessibility, Implementation of AI in Assistive Technology and Tools for Empowering People with Disabilities, National Disability Support AI Chat Bot, and Unified Benefits Interface (UBI), modelled on the widespread and popular UPI financial technological tool, were launched by Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary, DEPwD in the presence of a government officials, technology experts from IITs and AIIMS, Technology Entrepreneurs and citizens.
The Secretary, DEPwD, unveiling the National AI Missions for Persons with Disabilities, Rajesh Aggarwal said, 'India now has one billion digital Aadhaar IDs, the digi-locker which can have all physical documents in digital form in just one device, and the UPI (Unified Payments Interface) which has made financial transactions easy. We are extending this digital footprint for persons with disabilities by digitalising and automating a series of government benefits, schemes and policies, to reach beneficiaries within 24 hours in the areas of education, health, livelihood and finance. Disabled students will receive scholarships in their accounts in 24 hours from now on and people with health problems can interact with a chatbot to clarify and seek medical and health advisory services from home itself and the UBI will ensure digital and technological interaction between disabled people and the government to ensure services are delivered without bureaucratic delays and hindrances. The interaction will be direct, easy and seamless, made possible by AI.'
The Member of the Steering Committee of NITI Aayog instituted to design the National Strategic Framework of Assistive Technology (AT) in India with the objective of making India a Global Hub of Assistive Technology, and Co-Founder and CEO of AssisTech Foundation (ATF), which has changed the lives of a million disabled people, Prateek Madhav said, 'We are working with the Government to ensure that persons with disabilities, particularly learners, are equipped with the right Assistive Technologies (AT) - screen readers, Braille displays, sign language plugins, speech recognition tools, and adaptive input devices – to ensure an hindrance-free everyday life as well as seamless and easy interaction and practical working in the fields of education, health, and livelihood to enable persons with disabilities have a hurdle-free reception of benefits. We concur with Aggarwal's UBI initiative modelled on UPI as this will ease implementation of benefits for persons with disabilities. With over 14.96 billion transactions per day and a total transaction value of ₹23.25 trillion, UPI has revolutionized how Indians handle money. But beyond the numbers lies a deeper impact—ease of access for people with physical disabilities. No longer do they have to travel to banks, wait in long queues, or manage cheque books. UPI allows users to send or receive any amount—from 10 paise to ₹10 lakh—right from their homes. For the disabled, this saves not just time and energy, but also the physical and emotional strain of navigating public spaces. When paired with Assistive Technologies like voice commands, screen readers, and simplified interfaces, digital payments become even more inclusive. Digital payment system is more than a mere advancement—it is a powerful equalizer.'
Prateek has co-founded the Global Alliance on Assistive Technology Innovations and Investments, known as the Inclusive Innovation Network (+N), along with AT pioneers and partners from Australia, Canada, and Kenya to bring in their innovations into India to aid persons with disabilities. He is establishing the largest AT innovation ecosystem in India and under his leadership, ATF has developed a network of over 450+ AT startups, impacted the lives of 1 million individuals with disabilities.
Abhishek Singh, Additional Secretary, MEITY, and DG, NIC said, 'We are working with state governments to adopt AI models and missions we will be taking all these technologies to tier-2 and tier-3 cities in India to help the underserved and disabled.'
A highlight of the conference was the high-impact panel session on 'Assistive Technology Leveraging AI', moderated by Prateek, which featured a distinguished panel of experts. Sandeep Alur, CTO, Microsoft Innovation Hub, said, AI can see, hear, speak, reason, memorize and think. This means that the future is AI adapting to individual requirements, especially for the disabled.'
Shekar Naik, Padma Shri Awardee and Former Captain, Indian Blind Cricket Team, who is training hundreds of blind cricketers said, 'AI on the laptop helps us now to place players on the cricket field in minutes. It would take hours or half a day earlier. I can now book my tickets, write on my own or type on my own. AI has ended dependency of the blind permanently.'
Amitabh Nag, CEO, Bhashini Project, which is transforming the language translation scenario in India, said, 'We are developing speech to text and text to speech, voice technologies, websites in Indian languages, addressing translation of dialects beyond the 22 official languages to help the disabled.'
Chandrika Jain, CMO, Lenovo India said, 'Design of AI technologies should be undertaken with the disabled, not for them. The disabled have to be part of the tech design, not as an afterthought.'
Prateek, who steered the insightful and thought-provoking discussion, concluded stating that ATF's hope and vision is to build the world's first Unicorn (start-up) that would reach a billion disabled people by developing technologies that would help the disabled. 'A Unicorn is a billion-dollar start-up, but for us, Unicorn is not about money, it's about a billion people. There is hope because we have moved from 400 start-ups 10 years ago to 1.7 lakh start-ups in 2025.'
The panel collectively underscored the importance of collaboration between government, private sector, and social innovation ecosystems to build an AI-powered accessible future. The conference served as a pivotal platform to explore the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Assistive Technology (AT), with the goal of harnessing cutting-edge innovations to enhance accessibility, inclusion, and empowerment for persons with disabilities.
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