Govt designs SAGE project to support India's elderly

New Delhi, October 1: The Union Government has designed the project 'Senior care Ageing Growth Engine' / SAGE, to provide a 'one-stop access' to elderly care products and services.

According to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment / MoSJE, SAGE aims at promoting private enterprises to bring out innovation in products benefitting the elderly. The project is based on the recommendations of Empowered Expert Committee / EEC report on start-ups for elderly.

The objectives of SAGE are focussing on focusing on needs of India's elderly population. It is to select, support and create a 'one-stop access' to elderly care products and services, to encourage the selected start-ups based on innovative products and services, address the services from health, housing, care centres, technology access linked to needs like finances, food and wealth management to legal guidance.

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The ministry said, "In order to provide a transparent mechanism for selecting the start-ups, a dedicated portal has been designed. All proposals will be uploaded and selection will be based on blind review by an independent screening committee of experts. The first set of selected start-ups will be hosted on the portal in about two months time."

It added, "Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government has created the Senior Citizen Welfare Fund (SCWF) in 2016 to fund activities that would bring significant change in the lives of the elderly in India. The Fund is expected to use Rs 9,000 cr of unclaimed deposits in the EPF and other public funds. The Rashtriya Vayoshri Yojana is funded through this."

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The inter-ministerial committee for SCWF has considered funding of around Rs. 100 crore as equity support to selected start-ups with a maximum of Rs. 1 core per start-up.