Seventeen Indian companies, including the Tatas and Mahindra group, have signed up with a disability inclusion campaign named The Valuable 500, which encourages global business leaders to recognise the value of the world’s 1.3 billion disabled people.
Central Group, Mahindra, Tata Steel, ANZ Bank, Lalit Hospitality Group, Allegis group, Laguna Clothing, Vindhya E-Infomedia, Linde Group, Dr. Reddy's, Refinitiv (formerly Thomson Reuters), Mphasia, DTSS, IBM, Sansera, Wipro and Brookfield announced their commitment to eradicating exclusion of disabled people in business, a statement by The Valuable 500 said.
The development comes ahead of The Valuable 500 Founder Caroline Casey’s appearance at Enable India, a charitable organisation working for economic independence with dignity for persons with disabilities, on November 29 in Delhi, said the statement.
The UK’s Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has also announced it has signed up to The Valuable 500. CBI is amongst 50 new global businesses to have committed to the campaign since last month when 100 sign-ups were announced, including the seventeen Indian businesses announced on Wednesday.
Launched at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Summit this year, The Valuable 500 seeks 500 global businesses to place disability inclusion on their board agenda as the first step to full inclusion for disabled people in business.
The news today comes as the 90-day countdown to the next Annual Summit in Davos begins, marking one year since the launch of The Valuable 500. Up to 150 companies have now signed up from 20 countries, including Australia, Bahrain, Denmark, Egypt, India, USA and Switzerland. At least another 150 are due to become members in the coming months.
Caroline Casey, founder of The Valuable 500, said today is a huge moment for the disabled community – to have 150 global CEOs signed up to this initiative, and from 20 countries is astounding. “We welcome the 17 companies from India and South East Asia to The Valuable 500, and applaud them for showing true leadership on this issue, on a global level.”
Global businesses signed up to The Valuable 500 include Sainsbury’s, Unilever, Microsoft, Bank of England, KPMG, EY, O2 (Telefonica UK) and Virgin Media.
These companies and leaders are taking a number of steps to support disability inclusion and equality throughout their businesses – reflecting a groundswell of corporate appetite to drive action on disability inclusion in business, said the statement.
First Published: Oct 23, 2019 8:22 AM IST
