Mr. Alok Kejriwal the Founder & CEO of ISH News and the Owner, Chairman & M.D of AAPL Solutions Pvt Ltd. was in Margao, Goa with his team (Vicky Shah, Harish Bhatia, Aqil Chinoy & Monisha Shah) to attend the International Deaf Summit. While at the summit, he was interviewed by the Gomantak Times along with his interpreter Ms. Monisha Shah. They published an article of the interview on 6th January 2020. Let me tell you what the article said. Due to Rubella Disease, Mr. Kejriwal was born Deaf in Assam. All his family members are hearing. For years he faced hardships, as he could not understand anything that was going on around him. He then came to Mumbai for further studies. He is a well-known personality among Deaf individuals living in India as well as abroad.

He is the CEO of India Signing Hands Pvt Ltd. It is a company that runs ISH News, a News channel specially for the Deaf. The channel has received more than 14 million views in one year. This news channel has changed the lives of millions of individuals. Mr Kejriwal was very upset that there was not a single News Channel for the Deaf in India.He said, “In 2017, I thought of starting ISH. Then on 22nd November 2018, we started the company. The reason was that I love to watch News daily and read the newspapers. But the problem is I don’t understand it properly. So my wife used to explain to me the content of the news. There are many people like me who do not understand what is shown on TV. Hence I started ISH News which has videos in Indian Sign language, Captions and voice-over for Deaf children and their parents. ISH News is available on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and also on other social media platforms. 

As per the 2011 census, there are 18 million Deaf people in our country. However, there are many Deaf individuals that are kept away from Census authorities. So we do not know the accurate number of Deaf individuals. Out of the total population in India, 1% is Deaf. There are also other people with disabilities.90% of the people working at ISH are Deaf. They are all professionals in the field of editing, signing, graphics, etc. I want all Deaf people to come join my company. Because I want to show the world that Deaf people too are talented and can do wonders in the world. At ISH News, everything is done by my deaf employees because of their beautiful skills. After the first anniversary of ISH News, we registered 14 million views. Out of which 90% are from India and 10% are from abroad. 

The interviewer asked Mr Kejriwal about the problems he faced. Mr Kejriwal said, “I faced no problems starting this company because I was already working with my company AAPL Solutions Pvt Ltd for the last 30 years. We export foil papers, powders, eye drop bottles, etc to 55 countries. I managed to gather Deaf professionals with the help of different associations working with the Deaf community. I have my own team and we have an aim of getting 30 million views.Mr Kejriwal wants to start new services for ISH News. He said,” We are starting entertainment videos for the Deaf. The General public has all types of entertainment programmes but where will the Deaf go? Deaf people also need entertainment programmes like the Kapil Sharma show and others. From now on my channel will be 50% News and 50% entertainment.Mr Kejriwal has requested the public to support ISH News. He said all News channels must compulsorily provide accessibility services to the Deaf and people with other disabilities. laws must be made providing accessibility and news Channels must follow it.  

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