The Government of Karnataka has launched Adidvara, an AI-powered employment and skilling platform for persons with disabilities (PwDs), positioning it as one of the first state-led inclusive hiring infrastructures of its scale in India.
The mobile application was inaugurated at Vikasa Soudha in Bengaluru on Thursday, May 7, 2026, by Sharan Prakash R. Patil, Minister for Skill Development and Medical Education, in association with the AssisTech Foundation (ATF). Also present were Laxmi Hebbalkar, Minister for Women & Child Development and Empowerment of Differently Abled, and Priyank Kharge, Minister for IT, BT and Panchayat Raj.
“Persons with disabilities are second to none. They are as talented as anyone else, and corporates must provide them equal opportunities and fair treatment during recruitment,” Patil said at the launch.
The platform connects PwDs with employment opportunities, internships, and skilling and upskilling programmes. Its AI-powered job-candidate matching engine aligns skills, interests, and accessibility requirements with suitable roles, supporting outcome-oriented hiring. On the employer side, companies can post inclusive job roles and access a diverse talent pool that has historically remained outside mainstream recruitment funnels.
Alongside the app, the Minister also unveiled the logo for the Adidvara Grand Job Habba, a job fair for persons with disabilities scheduled for August 2026 at the Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru. The event is expected to draw over 3,000 job seekers representing all 21 notified disability categories. Employers from IT, retail, manufacturing, BFSI, hospitality, and services are expected to participate, with direct recruitment drives, career guidance sessions, skill pathway awareness programmes, and assistive technology showcases planned.
Prateek Madhav, CEO and Co-Founder of AssisTech Foundation, said the launch was “a significant milestone in building inclusive livelihood pathways.” Senior IAS officers, including E.V. Ramana Reddy, Chairman of the Karnataka Skill Development Authority, and Salma Fahim, Secretary of the Department of Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Livelihood, were also present at the event.
The launch lands in a year when corporate India’s PwD hiring numbers remain stubbornly low despite a decade of CSR-led pilot programmes. For HR teams looking to translate accessibility commitments into actual recruitment outcomes, Adidvara offers something that has been missing in most diversity hiring frameworks so far: a single, AI-mediated funnel that handles both the matching and the assistive technology requirements at the same time.
