Tata Power Community Development Trust (Tata Power CDT) and the Indian Hotels Co Ltd (IHCL) jointly organized the first National Workshop on Neurodiversity in Mumbai with a focus on Autism Spectrum.

The workshop brought together representatives from the Tata Group, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India (GoI), The United Nations, practitioners and domain experts from the field of neurodiversity to deliberate and implement phygital interventions and support programs in Tier 2, and Tier 3 cities and rural India. A series of pre-consultation with experts from the field were carried out to put forward challenges and recommendations for working group to deliberate in the workshop.

Several ground visits to early intervention centers in different regions were also conducted, along with a Disability Tech Expo event with set of experts to get maximum possible range of insights from the sector. According to estimates by the Indian Council of Medical Research, India is home to more than ten million individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

The event aimed to create a collective platform for key actors to optimize existing efforts, cross-pollinate and enable required support ecosystems for early diagnosis, acceptance & care by leveraging the combined power of technology, people, corporate and Govt. schemes networks. The roundtable served as a prelude to form a National Working Group that to work jointly with key actors in this space including the Government of India - for taking forward sustainable value-adds & support programmes’ integration in the current system.