New Delhi, Sep 28: With hearing loss emerging as one of the world’s major public-health challenges, Priority Hearing has announced HEAR INDIA – India’s Hearing Care & Innovation Summit, an initiative envisioned to bring the country’s hearing–care ecosystem onto a common platform for knowledge, collaboration, innovation and impact.
Built around the four pillars — People • Practice • Progress • Possibilities — HEAR INDIA aims to bring together audiologists, ENT specialists, healthcare leaders, academicians, researchers, hearing–care providers, technology innovators, manufacturers, industry partners and young professionals to exchange ideas and explore the future of hearing healthcare in India.
The initiative comes at an important time. According to the World Health Organization, more than 1.5 billion people globally live with some degree of hearing loss, while around 430 million require rehabilitation for disabling hearing loss. WHO projects that nearly 2.5 billion people could have some degree of hearing loss by 2050, with more than 700 million requiring hearing rehabilitation. In India, an often-cited government estimate places the number of people with significant hearing impairment at approximately 63 million.
Against this backdrop, HEAR INDIA seeks to create a sustained dialogue around early identification, clinical excellence, accessibility, rehabilitation, emerging technologies, research, innovation and the development of a stronger hearing–care ecosystem.
Dr. Raj Sharma, Founder of Priority Hearing and the driving force behind HEAR INDIA, said that the initiative has been conceived as much more than an annual conference.
“Our vision is to create a platform where the entire hearing–care community can learn from one another, collaborate and collectively address the enormous unmet need for hearing care in India. HEAR INDIA stands for People, Practice, Progress and Possibilities. We want the conversations taking place here to translate into better access, better technology and, ultimately, better hearing outcomes for people.”
A clinician-turned-entrepreneur, Dr. Sharma has been working towards expanding organised hearing–care services and creating greater awareness around hearing health in India.
The initiative is being shaped alongside Dr. Mani Bansal, Co-Founder of Priority Hearing, an accomplished audiology professional whose clinical experience has remained central to the organisation’s patient-care philosophy. “Around 6% of people in India are affected by some form of hearing loss. New technologies are rapidly transforming hearing healthcare services. However, timely detection, appropriate treatment, and better patient care are equally important. By bringing all these elements together, we can make quality hearing healthcare more accessible to people across the country.”
Dr. Bansal said, “Hearing has a profound impact on communication, learning, relationships and quality of life. Early identification and appropriate intervention can transform lives. Through HEAR INDIA, we hope to strengthen the bridge between clinical knowledge, technology and compassionate patient care.”
The summit is designed to encourage dialogue across disciplines rather than working in silos, with discussions spanning clinical practice, technology, research, professional development, accessibility, industry collaboration and the future of hearing care.
The larger ambition is to develop HEAR INDIA into an annual national platform capable of catalysing partnerships and encouraging solutions that are relevant not only for metropolitan India but also for underserved communities.
With the message “Sound • Science • Stronger • Society,” HEAR INDIA seeks to underline a simple idea: better hearing is not merely a clinical outcome—it enables better communication, greater participation and a more connected society.
HEAR INDIA is an initiative of Priority Hearing.