MUMBAI: Domestic conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has joined 'The Valuable 500' - a B2B initiative catalysing the influence of large private sector corporations - to collectively tackle disability inclusion in business, a release said on Tuesday.
Mahindra group's Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Anish Shah is among 13 global CEOs who will be spearheading the programmes and services to be offered under Phase 2 of the campaign, it said.
Launched at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting at Davos in 2019, the platform's membership includes 36 of the FTSE 100 companies, 46 of Fortune 500 and 28 of Nikkei-listed firms.
The Valuable 500 has reached its goal of 500 international organisations committing to put disability inclusion on their board agenda, making it the world's biggest CEO collective for disability inclusion, said the release.
It added that the platform has launched phase 2 of the campaign, which will see the 500 major organisations work together to make change happen for disability inclusion in business.
The initiative has also received the largest-ever investment into disability business inclusion, with The Nippon Foundation investing USD 5-million to catalyse new Valuable 500 initiatives, as per the release.
Mahindra Group is committed to disability inclusion and my hope for the future is to imbibe ability and disability diversity, building and nurturing capabilities without any bias and becoming truly inclusive, Shah said.
As part of phase 2, 13 Iconic leaders, including Mahindra Group, across The Valuable 500 will co-fund, co-build and co-test the programmes and solutions, using their industry experience to help catalyse progress for the entire community.
The CEOs of all of these companies are committed to working together to lead by example and transform the business system for disability inclusion, it added.
A new research from The Valuable 500 and Tortoise Media reveals that there are no executives or senior managers who have disclosed a disability in company reporting by the FTSE 100, while only 12 per cent report on the total number of their employees who are disclosed as disabled, as per the release.
With Tortoise's research showing that only a small minority of the FTSE 100 are actively tackling and addressing disability inclusion at a leadership level, there is plenty more business leaders globally can and must do to better serve the 1.3 billion people worldwide with disabilities, it said.
The commitments made by the 500 global companies over the course of the last two years have already made a tangible difference, he added.
Ahead of Global Accessibility Awareness Day on May 20, the research reinforces that while disability inclusion is now on the business agenda, it still has a long way to go before true inclusion is achieved.
It also shows that India has been central in pushing the agenda on disability inclusion globally, with 19 of the 500 companies headquartered in India, which, 4 per cent of The Valuable 500, according to the release.