• Persons with disabilities face many challenges in participating fully in urban life.
• Inclusive infrastructure is needed to allow them the same opportunities to enjoy cultural, economic, and social life as non-disabled persons.
• These opportunities include freedom to move independently and access places of work, education and sports.

Need for Inclusive Cities

• Two mega-trends make the need for inclusive cities increasingly urgent.
• Rapid Urbanisation: India is urbanising rapidly. It is projected to add four new megacities by 2030.
• The country’s urban population is estimated to cross 675 million.
• One in three persons with disabilities in India or roughly eight million people already live in cities.
• Share of people with disabilities: The number of persons with recognised disabilities as a share of the population could rise due to disaster and climate risks, demographic changes and broader definitions of disability in line with global norms.

Role of Innovative Technology

• Innovative technology and ICT offer a powerful solution to address these challenges.
• Both can enable inclusive urban transformation, enhancing the quality of life for all citizens.
• India exemplifies this convergence, with its exceptional digital governance system and thriving tech sector driving inclusive prosperity and resilience.
• The theme of India''s G20 presidency, "One Earth, One Family, One Future," embodies the values of solidarity and inclusivity.
• Investments in inclusive innovations are sometimes viewed as unprofitable, necessitating the important role of the state in fostering an ecosystem for transformative technologies, especially in cases where measuring the return on investment is challenging.

Collaborative Efforts for Inclusive Urbanization

• The first edition of the Smart Solutions Challenge and Inclusive Cities Awards was hosted in 2022 by the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) in collaboration with the UN in India.
• It was aiming to enhance the ecosystem for assistive technology and inclusive solutions.
• The initiative facilitated the collection of technology-based solutions and innovations to address accessibility and inclusion challenges at the city level.
• Smart cities like Bhubaneswar have implemented innovative transportation and mobility solutions.
• The city demonstrates how technology is utilized to improve the lives of vulnerable communities.
• Various solutions and assistive technologies, including Fifth Sense, IncluMaps, AxcessAble, and myUDAAN, enable independent living for individuals with disabilities.
• These initiatives, along with others, have the potential to empower cities in localizing innovations for inclusive urbanization.
• Many of these solutions heavily leverage frontier technologies like AI and machine learning to tailor solutions according to specific contexts.

Government Initiatives and Future Outlook

• The Government of India focuses on leveraging technological innovations and entrepreneurship in its development agenda and aligns with globally agreed SDG targets.
• India has established the Start-up 20 Engagement Group to facilitate collaboration within the start-up ecosystem across member nations of G20.
• The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has introduced the G20 Digital Innovation Alliance (G20-DIA).
• It aims to showcase innovative solutions and foster collaboration among players in the innovation ecosystem.
• The Urban-20 Engagement Group under G20 emphasizes the theme of ''Catalysing Digital Urban Futures''.
• It aims to explore the effective and inclusive utilization of data and technology for city management.

It will take behavioural changes, capacity building, investments in accessible infrastructure, and inclusive and accessible innovations to create an inclusive and accessible India. This will assist in informing policies that will move the nation closer to the inclusive, accessible, secure, resilient, and sustainable India@2047 that Amrit Kaal envisions. A society that makes use of all of its talent will benefit all of India and empower many more people like Manasi Joshi to make the nation proud.