India’s untapped potential due to inaccessibility is valued at $214 billion (Rs 17.9 lakh crore) every year due to absence of accessible infrastructure, as per a White Paper released Thursday. The report by KPMG and non-profit Svayam pegs this loss as a result of lost productive years and diminished market participation in sectors such as tourism, sports, transport and information and communication technology.
Released at the National Summit on Accessibility 2025, organised by Svayam in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and UNESCO, the report argues that accessibility must be treated as an economic strategy, not a welfare measure, and that its absence is dragging down India’s GDP growth by several percentage points.
“India faces an estimated loss of $1 trillion in its GDP owing to lack of accessibility inclusion in businesses,” said Sminu Jindal, founder and chairperson of Svayam. “With targeted policy interventions and systemic improvements, accessibility has the potential to significantly enhance India’s GDP and overall productivity.”
The report, ‘Does Accessibility Make Economic Sense?’, reveals that nearly one in three Indians (around 486 million people) experience some form of reduced mobility, whether through disability, age, illness, or temporary injury. The figure rises to more than 700 million when families and caregivers are included. Inaccessible environments, the study notes, “impose measurable costs on the economy, through reduced consumption, increased care dependence, and lost working days”, while inclusive systems “generate multiplier effects” across labour participation and consumer demand.
The economic toll is sharpest in transport, where annual productivity losses are estimated at $125 billion (Rs 10.57 lakh crore). Only 6% of buses are fully accessible, and most of India’s smaller railway stations remain out of reach for persons with disabilities and older adults. In tourism, better accessibility could unlock an additional $16.6 billion in annual revenue, as travellers with mobility challenges typically spend 23% more per trip. The sports sector, now worth $19 billion, could nearly double in value to $43.5 billion by 2031 if accessibility were integrated into stadiums and sporting infrastructure, as per the report.
Digital accessibility remains another weak link, costing the economy $54 billion (Rs 4.57 lakh crore) annually, with over 90% of financial-sector websites failing to meet even basic accessibility standards.\
The White Paper frames accessibility as “a prerequisite and a catalyst for unlocking productivity, participation, and innovation across the economy”, aligning with India’s Viksit Bharat @2047 vision. It concludes that accessibility “is not an expense, it’s an investment that fuels participation, productivity, and prosperity”.