National conference on AI for empowering persons with disabilities held in Bengaluru
Bengaluru: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping the landscape of accessibility and inclusive development, a message that stood central at the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Empowering Persons with Disabilities, held today in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
The landmark event brought together an impressive array of government officials, academicians, technologists, and accessibility advocates to explore how AI is enhancing the lives of persons with disabilities.
Delivering the special address at the conference, Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary of the Department for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, described the emergence of AI as the dawn of "a new era of inclusion."
His keynote highlighted transformative advances in Deep Learning, Robotics, and Computer Vision, underlining their enormous potential to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities.
As part of his address, Aggarwal also launched four key initiatives aimed at integrating AI into the accessibility ecosystem:
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Mission AI Accessibility
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Mission AI: Implementation of AI in Assistive Technologies and Tools for Empowering People with Disabilities
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National Disability Support AI Chatbot
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United Benefits Interface (UBI)
These initiatives seek to establish inclusive digital infrastructures and offer scalable AI-driven solutions in assistive technologies, marking a significant step towards digital inclusion.
The conference was jointly organized by the Department for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) and the Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO), a Mini Ratna Central Public Sector Enterprise operating under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
Praveen Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director of ALIMCO, reaffirmed the organization's commitment to advancing innovation in assistive technology and promoting inclusive design practices.
He emphasized that AI can serve as a force multiplier in building a more accessible India and praised the multi-sector collaboration the event fostered.
The event drew participation from several leading voices across academia, industry, and government, including:
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Venu Govindaraju, Distinguished Professor, Department of Computer Science, University at Buffalo, USA (via video conference)
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P.V.M. Rao and Rohan Paul, Professors at IIT Delhi
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Buddha Chandrashekhar, CEO, Anuvadhini
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Pragya Misra, Partnerships Lead, OpenAI – India
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Aalekh Sharan, Head, Enterprise AI & Strategy, Sarvam AI
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Manu Chopra, CEO, Karya Inc.
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Sandeep Alur, CTO, Microsoft Innovation Hub, India
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Chandrika Jain, Director of Marketing, Lenovo
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Shekhar Naik, Padma Shri awardee and Inclusion Advocate, IIM Bangalore
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Arshad Sayyad, Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer, StackGen
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Ananthalakshmi Venkitaraman, CEO, EquiBeing Foundation
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Prateek Madhav, Co-Founder and CEO, AssisTech Foundation (ATF)
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Amit Prakash, Professor and Head, Department of Human-Centered Computing, IIIT Bengaluru
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Amrita Kamat, Representative, Google India
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Ekroop Caur, Secretary, Department of Electronics, IT, BT, and S&T, Government of Karnataka
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Abhishek Singh, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Director General, National Informatics Centre (NIC), New Delhi
The conference spotlighted how cross-disciplinary collaboration can harness AI to empower millions of persons with disabilities.
A National Conference on Artificial Intelligence For Empowering Persons with Disabilities was held today at Hotel The Lalit, Bengaluru. The conference was jointly organized by the Department for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD),
— PIB in Karnataka (@PIBBengaluru) May 30, 2025
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Illegal sand mining has created environmental crisis in National Chambal Gharial Sanctuary: SC
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Friday said rampant illegal riverbed sand mining has created an "environmental crisis" and wreaked "havoc" in the National Chambal Gharial Sanctuary, causing a grave risk to the gharial (long-snouted crocodile) preservation project.
Slamming the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh for their utter failure in dealing with the issue, the apex court directed them to install high-resolution Wi-Fi-enabled CCTV cameras along all routes frequently used for illegal sand mining in the area.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta directed that live feed of such surveillance cameras shall be placed under the direct control, supervision and operational oversight of the superintendent of police or the senior superintendent of police of the concerned district and the divisional forest officer.
It said these officers shall ensure continuous and effective monitoring of the CCTV feeds by designating appropriate officers.
"It can't be gainsaid that the issues involved are of great concern in as much as the rampant illegal mining activities in the river bed have created an environmental crisis and havoc in the National Chambal Gharial Sanctuary causing a grave risk to the very project of gharial preservation of which the state governments themselves were proponents and were under an obligation to foster and promote," Justice Mehta said while pronouncing the order.
The bench directed the authorities in these three states to initiate prompt and necessary action under law if any instance of illegal mining or allied activities comes to light.
It said the authorities shall ensure seizure of vehicles or machinery found involved in illegal sand mining and also initiate prosecution of persons involved in it.
The bench, which passed several other directions, posted the matter for hearing on May 11.
The top court passed the order in a suo motu case titled 'In Re: Illegal sand mining in the National Chambal Sanctuary and threat to endangered aquatic wildlife'.
The National Chambal Sanctuary, also called the National Chambal Gharial Wildlife Sanctuary, is a 5,400-sq km tri-state protected area.
Besides the endangered gharial, it is home to the red-crowned roof turtle and the endangered Ganges river Dolphin.
Located on the Chambal river near the tripoint of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, the sanctuary was first declared a protected area in Madhya Pradesh in 1978 and now constitutes a long and narrow eco-reserve co-administered by the three states.
On March 13, the top court took suo motu cognisance of news reports about rampant illegal sand mining on the banks of the Chambal river.
