Within the age of age-tech: How Bengaluru’s aged are getting empowered

Raghavendra (title modified), 73, is a part of round six WhatsApp teams for the aged. {An electrical} engineer who spent greater than 30 years in Mumbai, he moved to Bengaluru post-retirement to reside together with his daughter. In a metropolis of 1.4 crore individuals, the septuagenarian was beginning to really feel lonely given his daughter’s busy work schedule and his spouse’s demise eight years in the past. Then, he discovered his tribe on-line.

“They get me a cake for Christmas. I get Tirupati laddus for them. We are all now planning a trip together to Vietnam,” says a really cheerful Raghavendra, throughout a meetup held by Sukoon Limitless, a city-based start-up constructing a neighborhood for seniors.

New analysis space

Analysis on longevity has been receiving unprecedented consideration internationally. In 2024, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) introduced the launch of the Longevity India Initiative, a venture targeted on efforts to increase human ‘health span’ and fight ageing-related challenges. Maverick millionaires like Bryan Johnson have even been making an attempt anti-ageing experiments.

However the aged in India have been at an attention-grabbing, or relatively puzzling, cross-section. With social buildings altering and households shrinking to nuclear, how you can productively use the silver years with out feeling remoted and never burdening others has been a query troubling many these days.

Age-tech, a brand new and rising sector, hopes to reply this query with the assistance of know-how and ease the issues of individuals like Raghavendra.

Age-tech start-ups

Neeraj Sagar, founding father of Knowledge Circle, began a web-based group of age-tech founders in India about two years in the past. The group had its first offline meetup final yr in Bengaluru the place nearly 40 founders confirmed up.

“In a year that number has become 100,” says Sagar.

In line with estimates, India at present has about 15 crore senior residents (individuals above 60 years), a quantity which is anticipated to greater than double to 32 crore by 2050. A altering demography means the common age going up and the market wants shifting, prodding entrepreneurs to be early movers within the area. From bodily well being to emotional well-being to cognitive expertise to the employability of seniors, age-tech start-ups try to handle a spectrum of challenges confronted by seniors.

Eliminating loneliness

In 2022, WHO revealed that 1 in 4 older individuals expertise social isolation, significantly impacting their well being and longevity, with results on mortality akin to smoking, and weight problems.

Vibha Singal, founding father of Sukoon Limitless, factors out that individuals with ageing dad and mom usually give significance to the latter’s bodily well being and monetary and logistical wants, however aren’t at all times able to assist them with their emotional wellbeing.

“When a person is 60, their kids are between the age of 30 and 40 trying to build their own families and careers.”

There may be additionally a rising phase of elders who’re financially unbiased and like being on their very own relatively than transferring in with their youngsters or uprooting their lives to a special place, Singal notes.

“We see if we can help the parents beat loneliness so that they age slower. Finding purpose and community are the fulcrums to beating loneliness. That’s what Sukoon is out to do.”

Began in 2024, Sukoon, in line with Singal, is India’s first platform for seniors by seniors providing providers comparable to emotional assist, counselling, group therapies, volunteering alternatives, and concierge providers.

Each the service suppliers and repair takers are individuals above 50 years previous. “When a service provider is a senior citizen, it gives them purpose. And if the service taker is a senior citizen, there is a sense of community,” Singal notes.

From 200 members within the first month, the neighborhood has grown to six,000 customers unfold throughout 400 cities and cities in a yr with the common age between 58 and 68. Round 60% of the customers are males and 40% ladies. A number of the most mentioned considerations embrace youngsters’s reluctance to marry, and lack of partner.

The corporate has additionally invested in a proprietary AI instrument which might reply in additional than 100 languages. Singhal notes that greater than 65% of the neighborhood members speak to it. There have been cases of customers speaking to it like a good friend, naming it and even spending hours with it.

Fifty-nine-year-old Miranda (title modified), a finance skilled at a company agency, dialled a Sarathi at Sukoon when she couldn’t come to phrases with the considered retiring in a yr.

“The thought of being without a job made me feel purposeless,” she says.  

Employment alternatives

Miranda’s considerations are shared by many. Neeraj Sagar of Knowledge Circle notes that not solely is there a major inhabitants preferring to work even after retiring from their everlasting roles, but additionally fairly a number of firms who need to faucet into the expertise of the aged.

Knowledge Circle, which helps retired professionals discover employment alternatives, has been round for 3 years now. Round 95,000 individuals and 1,500 firms have registered on the platform which has listed about 2,500 roles.

In line with Sagar, the demand principally comes from small and medium companies and start-ups who need to rent specialists for a number of days of the week. So far as the elders are involved, he says, there’s much more openness to hybrid roles.

However what motivates individuals to proceed working post-retirement? Is it the cash or is it one thing extra?

“Money is important to everyone, not always to meet the financial ends, but to feel valued,” says Sagar.

It’s usually a bid to proceed to really feel revered and related, backed by the impulse to impart the abilities they’ve acquired over a lifetime and provides again to society.

“What we are observing is that people who are worth way more are applying for roles that are not paying them as much. So, staying relevant takes priority over getting paid highly. We are also seeing a lot of people apply to nonprofit roles which pay lesser.”

Holding the mind sharp

In 2023, a research by Jinkook Lee and others confirmed that greater than 80 lakh Indians undergo from dementia. Because the Indian inhabitants appears to be like at an elevated lifespan and the aged inhabitants is estimated to be 20% of the entire inhabitants by 2050, the burden of neurodegenerative illnesses can be excessive.

“Typically, when somebody in your family reports having memory issues, you just brush it off as something normal with ageing,” factors out Issac John, cofounder of cognitive well being start-up Ivory. “But ways to assess if it is normal ageing or accelerated ageing is still not prevalent India.”

Co-founded by John and Rahul Krishnan, Ivory presents neuroscience-backed assessments that declare to assist preserve the mind sharp and determine neurodegenerative dangers early. The duo who up-close witnessed shut kinfolk affected by neurodegenerative illnesses needed to construct a differentiated product for the phase aged above 45 years.

The customers first take a easy evaluation which tells them their cognitive age. People who find themselves discovered in danger are steered to take up a medical grade evaluation.

“We work very closely with the medium and high-risk customers, get them to do a health and lifestyle profiling and recommend things that they need to change in their life, along with a personalized cognitive brain training session available for them on the app,” John explains.

The app at present has about 30,000 customers with two-third of them females and 60% from tier-1 cities.

Simple on the knees

Relating to bodily well being, orthopaedics varieties an important want for the aged. Statistics present that round 50% of the senior inhabitants want help with fundamental duties like sit-to-stand.

“In the larger scheme of things, the inability to carry out this function by yourself has two implications. Apart from the physical exhaustion and the strain, there is the risk that if you do not perform it safely, you could either fall into or out of the chair and end up injuring yourself,” notes Sanchit Jhunjhunwala, co-founder at Translead Medtech, a deep-tech spin-off from IISc, Bengaluru.

“This also leads to a hesitation to participate socially, culturally and economically. Even at home, you may stop yourself from drinking another glass of water because you will need to stand up, go to the washroom, sit down, stand up again, come back and sit down.”

The beginning-up has designed an assistive chair which presents assist whereas performing the actions of sitting down and standing up, with none electrical energy or sensors. The chair seat gently pushes the consumer whereas attempting to face up. Whereas sitting down, the sharp rise of the seat drops slowly.

“There has been a 2.5-fold growth in the number of knee replacements done in the last five years. And you’re looking at upwards of 5 lakh such surgeries happening,” Jhunjhunwala places it in perspective.

He notes that UNSDG suggestions speak about reserving 5% of seating in public area for accessibility.

“You need to make these elements functional as well. That’s where we come in. We are looking at a need of 25 million such assisted chairs in public spaces and 8 million in homes, offices, and so on.” 

The beginning-up, which is on the point of start its shipments in June, has additionally an assistive commode for the aged within the pipeline.

Tech that alienates

Whereas developments in know-how to help older individuals are welcomed, one concern amongst consultants is that, at instances, the actual wants of the aged take a backseat to the fascination with know-how and its potential.

Arvind Kasthuri, head of the geriatric unit at St John’s Medical Faculty, Bengaluru, recollects his expertise of working with a bunch which was growing wearables for older individuals years in the past and the way the crew was extra targeted on what the gadgets might do relatively than what the consumer needed or what was possible.

“Many of them are so kicked with the technology that they cannot resist the temptation,” he warns.

“They have to mesh their technologies into the real world of healthcare and see how the patient flows are. Looking at technologies from a patient flow point of view, and then trying to plug those gaps is better than working at it from the technology end and seeing what all those technologies can actually achieve.”

Pretesh Kiran, Affiliate Professor on the Division of Group Well being, St John’s Medical Faculty, provides that there’s a clear urban-rural divide in terms of age-tech. He additionally factors out that a lot of seniors discover it a problem to adapt to new applied sciences.

Holding tempo is difficult

“Digitisation is great news. But it is also happening at a very rapid pace, excluding key demography in our country, which is our elders,” says Bilal Zaidi, founding father of Elderra, which helps seniors study digital instruments.

Zaidi recollects how calls from his aged dad and mom looking for assist to e-book autorickshaws or groceries through apps elevated over the previous couple of years. Hailing autos down the street grew to become nearly unimaginable for them, and the kirana retailer that used to ship the groceries to them shut store within the onslaught of fast commerce.

“The other challenge is, in the absence of an understanding of technology, the elderly population is very vulnerable to scams,” provides Zaidi.

Govt. ought to take part

The tech divide turns into much more stark in rural areas. On high of it, age-tech’s deal with financially unbiased seniors dwelling in cities makes the providers unaffordable for the bigger aged inhabitants. The federal government and bigger corporates ought to be a part of arms with the startups to make the providers accessible for a bigger populace, suggests Susan Barton, an eldercare specialist in Bengaluru.