StartupTalky

Tag: ✍️ Opinions

  • Luxury Housing Boom: Will High-end Projects Support India’s Real Estate Drive?

    This article has been contributed by Mr. Nagabhushana Reddy, Founder & Managing Director, NBR Group

    If you need to know India’s residential cycle in late 2024–2025, track the money—and currently, the money is moving into luxury and high-end homes in the metros. From Mumbai’s record ticket sizes to Bengaluru’s growth corridors, high-end projects are supporting overall sales values while volumes temper from last year’s highs. The key question is if this top-heavy push can carry industry momentum up to 2026.

    The Premium Engine Under the Hood

    New information in ANAROCK’s quarterly Pan-India Residential Market Viewpoints shows a changing market. During Q2 2025, sales volumes in the top seven cities decreased by 20% year-on-year to approximately 96,300 units. However, aggregate sales value crept higher by 1% to INR 1.47 lakh crore—plain proof of customers upgrading. Average prices went up 11% y/y, with Bengaluru improving by 12% and NCR rising by 27%.

    Luxury (INR 1.5–2.5 crore) and ultra-luxury (>₹2.5 crore) markets are progressively on top. In Q2, luxury alone represented 27% of fresh supply, whereas ultra-luxury contributed another 19%. This skew wasn’t new. Even in Q1 2025, the two combined represented 42% of launches in the leading seven cities, whereas affordable supply dwindled to merely 12%. Developers are consciously focusing on more margin-sensitive projects for buyers with deeper pockets.

    Even while unit sales cooled, prices kept going up—up 17% y/y in Q1, driven by Bengaluru and NCR. And it is no “price illusion.” Pre-sales market-wide reveal real traction: listed builders recorded historic pre-sales of over INR 1.6 lakh crore in FY25, and in Q1 FY26 alone, the top 10 players booked over INR 44,000 crore—close to 30% of their full-year goals in just one quarter.

    Mumbai and NCR are still leaders in absolute terms, but Bengaluru leads the way in consistency. The city not only achieved double-digit price appreciation but is also seeing high-end launches pouring in across Sarjapur, Whitefield, and North Bengaluru. Backed by IT-driven job centers and planned metro and road corridors, Bengaluru’s premium demand appears less cyclical and more structural—directly linked to increasing incomes and continued white-collar job generation.

    Why Premium Is Winning: Incomes, Aspirations—and Credibility

    Three factors account for the outperformance of premium housing:

    • Increasing upper-middle and HNI incomes:- Growth in the formal sector, technology-enabled employment, and stock-market wealth impacts have increased the number of potential buyers willing to stretch for INR 1.5–INR 5 crore homes. Even as sales volumes ease, realizations remain intact because the buyer mix is becoming richer. Bengaluru, with its IT and startup wealth clustering, is a classic example of this trend.
    • Execution credibility of Grade-A developers:- Following years of consolidation, customers are rewarding builders with credentials, open RERA-compliant procedures, and timely delivery. Top-end buyers, above other groups, crave brand trust—having faith that their investments would deliver what was warranted.
    • Product-market fit:- Contemporary high-end apartments are sold less as bigger houses and more as holistic lifestyle offerings: private clubs, concierge, managed facilities, and security. Launches are being planned by developers to address this need, and that is why luxury and ultra-luxury supply stakes have remained elevated up to 2025.

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    Metros in Focus—and Bengaluru’s Sarjapur Story

    Demand for premium is still metro-focussed. ANAROCK data indicates MMR, Pune, Bengaluru, and NCR collectively contributed ~79% of sales in Q2 2025 and equally disproportionate share of new launches. Prices have grown steepest where employment and infrastructure are clustered, as expected.

    In Bengaluru, Sarjapur Road-Gunjur has evolved into a marquee destination. An ANAROCK micro-market report (Jan 2025) points to the recipe: location near Outer Ring Road IT corridors such as Bellandur and Eco Space, access to Whitefield and Electronic City, and a list of mobility improvements in the pipeline such as the ORR Metro (Phase 2A, by 2026), Sarjapur–Hebbal Metro (Phase 3A, by 2031), and the Peripheral/ Satellite Town Ring Roads.

    As of Q3 2024, the average price in Sarjapurroad-Gunjur stood at ~₹9,700/sq ft, registering ~62% appreciation over 2018. The micro market experienced a lean nine-month inventory overhang and a budget mix moving steadily upwards. Between 2018 and Q3 2024, Sarjapur supplied 31% of East Bengaluru’s residential supply, and in 2024 alone, contributed 23% in just the first three quarters—a testament to enduring developer conviction.

    Premium Housing: Momentum with Caveats

    Maintaining Real Estate Credibility
    Maintaining Real Estate Credibility

    Premium demand continues to anchor India’s real estate values, even as overall unit sales are moderate. Stable jobs, urban wealth creation, and disciplined execution have kept prices firm, inventories declining, and pre-sales visibility strong. Metro micro-markets like Bengaluru’s Sarjapur belt and Hebbala Extension remain resilient demand pools that cushion the cycle.

    Still, there are risks. Input costs drive developers towards higher-ticket launches, international uncertainty can subdue NRI and HNI buying, and lapses in execution could undermine investor confidence. At the same time, slender affordable supply exposes weakness should wage growth stall or mortgage rates increase. The sector’s direction depends on maintaining credibility, keeping costs in check, and finding the right balance for the demand barbell.

    Bottom Line

    India’s housing market has turned firmly from a volume-driven to a value-driven era, with high-end and luxury projects driving the cycle. The evidence—firming prices, buoyant sales values, and healthy pre-sales by top developers—points to this motor being able to continue running.

    But to maintain momentum into FY26 will mean doubling down on two essentials: execution credibility (prompt delivery, clear specifications, and good post-handover services) and capital discipline (capital-led launches, sensible pricing). Provided developers deliver on these terms—and provided infrastructure keeps sewing India’s jobs nodes and residential corridors together—micro-markets such as Bengaluru’s Sarjapur will continue to anchor the upmarket narrative while absorbing cyclical shocks.

    That is, premium can pass the baton, but only if the ending is as reliable as the beginning.

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  • Perks vs. Pay: Driving Employee Retention and Beyond

    This article has been contributed by Dr. Brillian S. K., Chief People Officer, TimesPro

    The debate sounds familiar, but the context has changed. A decade ago, candidates asked, “Is Provident Fund a part of the salary?” In 2025, they ask, “How much will I receive in hand?” The compensation conversation has shifted from deferred promises to immediate utility. In this landscape, pay anchors retention, especially in India, yet it cannot sustain it alone.

    Global salary budgets remain steady in the mid-three percent range across mature markets (roughly 3.2%–3.6%, with the U.S. near 3.5%), signalling targeted, not expansive, pay moves. India is an outlier: despite moderation, planned increases for 2025 were around 9.2%, among the world’s highest, making market-aligned, take-home pay table stakes rather than a differentiator.

    This leads to a very fundamental question, ‘Why don’t perks outweigh salary?’ Lifestyles and financial behaviours have evolved over the last few years. Younger professionals prefer to spend NOW rather than harvest benefits later. India’s net household financial savings fell to a five-decade low in FY23, then only modestly rebounded in FY24 even as liabilities rose, evidence of a ‘consumption-today’ bias that elevates the value of cash in hand over opaque or deferred benefits.

    Cultural signals amplify this shift. A booming creator economy normalises individual choice and instant gratification and it quietly devalues corporate freebies that once felt special. India’s influencer marketing industry stood at roughly INR 3,600 crores in 2024 and is projected to grow a further 25% in 2025, a momentum that shapes tastes, spending and the perceived worth of workplace perks. 

    What Gen X once treated as status, the fixed ‘executive’ trappings, no longer inspires. The airport-lounge metaphor captures it: what used to be a differentiator has become rote. Many professionals would now rather pay for a quiet corner than queue for access that once signalled privilege. Unless perks cross into a truly aspirational tier, think ‘black/platinum card’ scarcity, they rarely move the retention needle. Employees know better ways to spend on their terms and an enriched in-hand salary gives them that agency. This also is an indicator of behaviour, professionals want to control and manage their spends than let companies decide on “perks”.

    Are perks overrated, then? The gimmicky ones are. The benefits that matter remove life friction, protect wellbeing and enable growth: healthcare, paid leave, flexibility and development. Employer practice reflects this – healthcare coverage remains near-universal in major markets, while companies continue to emphasise flexible work and well-being supports.

    Crucially, the pay-versus-perks argument misses a third force: purpose and value alignment. Randstad’s 2025 Workmonitor finds work-life balance surpassing pay as the top motivator for the first time in 22 years and a significant share of workers have already quit roles over misaligned values. Deloitte’s 2025 Gen Z and Millennial Survey focusses on the same pattern: people want fair pay, but they stay when they also see learning, mentorship and purpose. In short, compensation captures attention; alignment and balance sustain it. 

    These realities also explain why many traditional perks feel like a ‘pseudo’ joy in 2025. Standardised freebies cannot compete with individualised choice, especially when life stages differ so sharply. Generations today often prefer consuming experiences now rather than banking distant benefits; the perceived utility of cafeteria vouchers or club tie-ups pales next to fungible cash, schedule control or meaningful development.

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    What Could employers do?

    Enhancing Employee Value Proposition
    Enhancing Employee Value Proposition
    • Pay with precision, not parity: In India’s context, fair take-home pay is the entry ticket. Use external data to calibrate hot-skills premiums and prevent ‘loyalty penalties’ that underpay stayers relative to joiners. In flatter global budgets, target increases where roles create disproportionate value and be transparent about the rationale.
    • Redesign perks: Retire tired giveaways. Offer a modular portfolio employees can assemble like health top-ups, mental-health coverage, caregiving credits, travel wallets and financial-wellness coaching. Evidence suggests many employers still under-index on flexibility/choice in benefits design, closing that gap increases perceived value far more than adding another generic perk.
    • Make purpose practical: Tie team priorities to customer outcomes and community impact. Equip managers to coach, not just coordinate; make internal mobility and learning visible and accessible. Younger cohorts consistently rank learning, mentorship and values alignment among the reasons they choose and remain with employers.
    • Treat flexibility as policy, not a perk: Flexible and hybrid models continue to carry enduring appeal across high-skill segments; anchoring them in operating design protects retention without sacrificing performance.

    These moves recognise a broader truth about how aspirations have shifted. From “Is Provident Fund part of the salary?” to “What’s my take-home?”, employees increasingly optimise for immediacy and autonomy. They prefer to direct their own spending rather than accept one-size-fits-all benefits; they would rather buy the quiet corner than flash the lounge card; and unless a perk is genuinely scarce and aspirational, it rarely compensates for a thin salary or a culture that ignores balance and meaning.

    The retention formula for 2025 is therefore simple and demanding. Companies must pay fairly, embed flexibility and connect work to something worthwhile. Done together, these choices respect how lifestyles have evolved, how influencers and social signals shape perceived status and why cash still matters most at the margin. Companies that act on this clarity will spend less chasing fads and keep more of the talent they cannot afford to lose.

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  • Why 73% of Indian Brands Will Fail in 2025 Without Visual Search SEO

    This article has been contributed by Chandan Bagwe, Founder and Managing Director, C Com Digital.

    There is a huge change happening in the Indian digital marketing world. As marketers chase traditional SEO KPIs, a revolution is quietly changing how people shop: visual search mixed with advanced technical SEO. The harsh truth? If brands don’t pay attention to this, they’ll become obsolete.

    The Visual Search Boom in India

    India’s economy, which is based on mobile devices, is excellent for visual search to take off. Google has more than 99% of the market for mobile search in India, and retail mobile commerce is expanding by more than 28% every year. This means that the foundation for visual search to take over is already in place.

    The stats tell a strong story: Indian users spend an average of three hours online daily, mostly looking at pictures and videos. But most brands are still stuck in text-based optimisation tactics, which are quickly becoming useless.

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    Myntra is a great example of how visual search may work in India’s complicated fashion world. Their visual search lets consumers quickly upload pictures of clothes and identify comparable items. What are the results? People who use visual search are three times more likely to interact with your site and forty per cent more likely to buy something than people who use regular search.

    It’s not only about technology; it’s also about understanding how Indian consumers act. In a market where cultural and regional differences make word searches useless, visual search fills the gap between finding inspiration and making a buy.

    Technical SEO: The Secret Base

    Visual search gets people’s attention, but technical SEO is the hidden base that decides whether a site will succeed. Technical SEO has changed since 2025. It now includes AI-readiness and optimising visual material, in addition to traditional optimisation.

    Technical performance is now a make-or-break aspect because of Google’s Core Web Vitals. Websites that fulfil these standards have 24% more mobile conversions, 15% longer sessions, and 12% fewer people who leave the site immediately.

    Problems in the Indian Market

    There are certain special problems that technical SEO in India has to deal with:

    • Network Variability: Making the most of connection speeds from 2G to 5G.
    • Device Diversity: Making sure that all cellphones, from affordable to high-end, work well.
    • Multilingual Complexity: Keeping technological performance up while supporting 22 official languages.

    The Strategy for Convergence

    BigBasket shows how visual search and technical SEO may work together. Their implementation includes thorough image schema markup, visual search for supermarket products, and advanced technological optimisation for various devices. 

    The results: organic exposure went up by 35%, visual search traffic by 45%, and mobile conversion rates by 28%.

    Framework for Implementation

    • Optimising Visual Content
    • Using the WebP format makes pages load 30% faster.
    • Optimising responsive images for performance on specific devices
    • Advanced schema markup for all visual content
    • High-resolution pictures of products from different angles
    • Updating Technical SEO
    • Optimising Core Web Vitals for Indian network conditions
    • Setting up a CDN with edge locations in India
    • Building Progressive Web Apps for app-like experiences
    • Optimising voice search for questions in more than one language.

    Nykaa’s Omnichannel Excellence: A Success Story

    Nykaa’s all-around approach shows how powerful convergence may be:

    • Visual Search: AR-powered “try-on” features that let you search visually
    • Technical Foundation: 99.9% uptime, loading speeds of less than 2 seconds, and PWA implementation

    Results: organic traffic grew by 200%, and visual search conversions grew by 150%.

    Strategies for Adapting to Different Regions

    In North India

    Festival-specific optimisation (for Diwali and Holi), visual search for winter clothes, and colour preferences by location.

    The South of India

    Recognising traditional attire, regional food, and classical design patterns

    The West India

    Business formal dress optimisation, modern lifestyle items, and solutions for urban spaces

    East India

    Recognition of handloom crafts, cultural artefacts, and the use of regional art

    The Reality Check for 2025

    Because of how people’s behaviour changes, brands are at a critical decision point; you can’t live without visual search capabilities anymore.

    Important Performance Metrics

    • Conversion rates for visual search: 4.5% for clothes and 6.2% for home decor. Sessions for visual search last 2.5 times longer than those for text search.
    • Technical SEO effect: 95% of Core Web Vitals must be met

    What you need to invest

    • Visual search technology costs ₹15–50 lakhs a year for business solutions.
    • Technical SEO tools cost between ₹2 and ₹8 lakhs a year.
    • Expected ROI time frame: 12–18 months for results that can be measured

    The Competition

    Amazon India is the market leader, handling over 100,000 visual search requests daily. The camera search on Flipkart gets 40% more clicks. Reliance Retail connects visual search in more than 12,000 outlets.

    SME Opportunities: cheap SaaS solutions, making Google Lens work better, integrating social media, and participating in local marketplaces.

    The Strategic Need

    Visual search and technical SEO are more than just fads; they are the future of how people in India will find things online. The combination of more digital infrastructure, more smartphones, and changing customer behaviour presents opportunities that have never existed before.

    To succeed, you need to change how you think about search, discovery, and user experience. Companies that excel at this convergence will not only be able to compete in today’s market but also shape the future of digital commerce.

    The Indian market is the best place to test these new ideas because it is big, diverse, and has a high digital penetration rate. To do well here, businesses need to devise plans for expanding around the world and maintaining their competitive edge.

    Conclusion: The End of the Road

    Visual search and technical SEO will distinguish the market leaders from the followers as we move into 2025. It’s not a matter of whether to invest; it’s a matter of how quickly you can use these tools to take advantage of the huge opportunity ahead.

    Businesses that use visual search SEO today will rule the search environment of the future. People who don’t will become increasingly irrelevant in a digital future driven by AI and focused on visuals.

    The revolution is unfolding right now. You can choose.

    About the Writer: He is a digital marketing expert who focuses on new search technologies, visual search implementations, and digital and AI. He has been in digital marketing for over 20 years and has attentively watched it change. 

    Sources of Data:
    Statista: India’s share of the Google Mobile Search Market
    Shipments of smartphones to India
    Statista: Online shopping in India
    Mobile Commerce Stats for 2024

  • When to Internally Develop a System and When to Bring in a 3rd Party Tool

    This article has been contributed by Dalip Jaggi, co-founder of Revive Real Estate.

    It doesn’t matter what type of business you choose to operate without technology investments; it’s likely that it won’t be able to compete with modern competition. Because of this, most organizations heavily rely on a combination of in-house and cloud-based tools to help drive their business forward.

    However, as you begin to scale, there’s a good chance that those off-the-shelf applications that you use regularly may start to feel like they’re unable to keep up. While this may be subtle at first, over time, it can feel like your integrations don’t function as smoothly as they once did or that your systems are lacking in performance.

    When this inevitably happens, businesses are typically left with a couple of options: either continue to invest in new, more expensive third-party tools or create their own custom solution.

    When weighing this decision for your own business, there are a variety of considerations you’ll want to make before choosing one path over the other.

    Why are Third-Party Software Tools So Common?

    Most businesses want to maintain a certain amount of agility as they scale their operations. Cloud-based tools and systems are the perfect solution for this. Investing in solutions that are already developed and have straightforward features that businesses can use provides a highly accessible solution that most organizations can afford.

    Below are some of the primary reasons why third-party software tools are so common today:

    • Scalable Infrastructure: As businesses get larger, add more staff, and have more specific operational needs, it’s important that the tools they invest in are highly adaptable. Cloud-based tools and services let organizations quickly scale their infrastructure needs up or down based on their current requirements. This allows them to stay agile while gaining access to the critical resources they need to grow.
    • Budget-Friendly Implementations: Most organizations have a wide range of financial tasks they need to manage. Whether needing to execute payroll processes, manage their inventory, compile financial forecasts, or file their taxes, third-party tools can help make all these processes much easier to handle.
    • Improved Team Collaboration: Today, many businesses have adopted more flexible working arrangements for their employees, including fully-remote or hybrid scheduling. To facilitate this type of format, third-party solutions have become an invaluable investment that allows businesses to provide their remote employees with helpful communication and task management platforms. This enables teams to work more autonomously while still having direct access to important company resources and their management teams.

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    Advantages and Disadvantages of In-House Software Solutions

    Advantages and Disadvantages of In-House Software Solutions
    Advantages and Disadvantages of In-House Software Solutions

    Although there may be a lot of advantages with third-party tools, at some point, it may become more beneficial for organizations to consider moving to an in-house software solution.

    However, as with any large business investment, there are some pros and cons worth considering about an in-house solution before deciding if it’s the right choice for your business.

    Advantages

    • Fully-Customized Products: Purchasing a custom in-house solution for your business is similar to completing a custom home renovation project, as opposed to moving into an already designed home. While a pre-built home or design space may have some features and still be enjoyable to be in, it may not be perfectly suited to you, and you’ll have to make some sacrifices on the look and feel of the space. Similarly, when designing a custom in-house software solution, you aren’t forced to have any features you don’t want or make sacrifices on the tools you really need to operate your business more efficiently.
    • Increased Shelf Life: When subscribing to various cloud-based services, businesses are often required to pay a monthly recurring subscription cost. While these costs may be nominal, over time they can add up and are the only way to gain access to all the features a business may need. 

    However, when building your own software solution, you’re able to have much more control over the long-term spending. This means the longer the application or system is used, the better the ROI for the business.

    • Minimal Waste: Most commercially accessible software on the market advertises that it includes a large range of features or benefits that “all” businesses can leverage. However, in most cases, very few businesses actually can benefit from this full range of features as they may be designed for only certain use cases. This means that many organizations actually pay a percentage of their subscription costs for features they never get to use.

    With a custom-built solution, this dynamic is much different. Since you have full control over what gets included in the development process and what gets skipped, it’s much more likely to design a solution that allows you to get full use and benefit from it.

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    Disadvantages

    • Heavy Upfront Spending: Unfortunately, one of the biggest downsides of a custom-built software solution is its upfront costs. Just like when renovating a home, it can require a healthy budget upfront before you’re able to see any final results. Depending on how complex the project is, your initial costs may be anywhere between a few thousand to tens of thousands of dollars.
    • Extended Project Timelines: Another downside of taking on a custom software build project is the timelines for completion. This can range considerably depending on the type of solution you’re looking for, but in most cases, it could take several months before you have a final working product your teams can test and use.

    Key Things to Consider When Deciding What Type of Solution is Right for You

    Which Software Solution is Right for my Business
    Which Software Solution is Right for my Business

    Before making the leap when deciding on the format for your next software solutions, here are a few questions you might want to ask yourself:

    • What are Your Budget Limitations? Before you decide if a custom project is feasible, you need a clear picture of what you can actually afford. Map out a budget that works for your business and then see which option can align with those numbers.
    • How Many Customization Options Do You Really Need? Depending on your business needs, you might find that a standard solution with minimal personalization is sufficient. But if your business needs to execute more complicated workflows or has highly specialized automation needs, then a custom-built tool may be the most logical path forward.
    • When Does Your Business Need Access? Keep in mind that custom software development is a significant, long-term commitment. If your team can afford to wait several months for a new tool, then building one might not be an issue. However, if you need to use the new software within days or weeks, a pre-existing third-party option is the more appropriate choice.

    Make The Right Choice For Your Business

    There’s really no right or wrong answer when choosing whether or not to purchase or build your next software solutions. By evaluating the pros and cons and measuring them against your own budgets and needs, you’ll make sure you choose a solution that brings the most benefits and value to your organization long-term.

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    Author Information

    Author Name: Dalip Jaggi

    Author Bio:

    Entrepreneur, technologist, and passionate business leader sum up the core of Dalip Jaggi, co-founder of Revive Real Estate, a PropTech company with a goal to democratize house flipping. Since its 2020 inception, Revive has become the smartest solution for homeowners across the nation to maximize their home’s value.

    Author Headshot:

  • The Rise of Sportstech in India and Its Future Opportunities

    This article has been contributed by Abhinav Sinha – Founder of SportsSkill.

    India’s SportsTech moment must be seen as part of the country’s wider digital transformation. If we want to improve results at the international level, we have to spot athletes early at the grassroots and give them proper guidance from the very beginning. Without technology, the system has clear limitations — and many gifted youngsters never even get started because access is out of reach.

    In the last decade, India has shown how digital can unlock opportunity. Affordable smartphones, low data costs, and public digital infrastructure have changed how people use banking, healthcare, and trade. Sport is now tapping into the same ecosystem.

    Take UPI, which has made small, seamless payments routine — whether for booking grounds, paying for training sessions, or buying tickets. Or Aadhaar-linked identities, which make athlete registration and verification quick and simple. Built on this digital backbone, SportsTech can finally give millions of kids the chance to participate, not just watch.

    The opportunity for India is clear: use technology not only to entertain fans, but to empower the next generation of players.

    Remote monitoring by coaches and scouts is made possible by cloud-based platforms. Effectively, sportstech is expanding not only because India is a sports-loving nation, but because digital rails that serve the broader economy now reach out to recreational and professional sporting activity. This integration makes India’s path unique in contrast to other economies, where sports tech has developed mainly as an extension of entertainment or fitness.

    Participation as the Prime Driver

    Worldwide, most investment in sports tech has gone into deepening athletic performance. Unfortunately, in India, the focus has been on fan experiences –streaming, betting, fantasy leagues, and interactive content—with fantasy sports platforms holding the lion’s share of market valuations.

    However, India’s larger opportunity lies in broadening participation. Our sports pyramid has been getting smaller for a long time. There is a small elite at the top and a thin middle tier below. This equation is starting to get back in balance thanks to technology. Booking ground, mobile fitness monitors, and distance coaching software online makes it easy for anyone to take part in organised activities in both huge cities and small communities. SportsTech can help millions of people go from being passive viewers to active players by making it easier and cheaper to get involved. This transformation has a huge impact on the health of the community, the health of the public, and the search for new talent. It indicates that participation, not watching, is the actual frontier for Indian sports.

    Scouting and Talent Pipelines

    A key challenge for Indian sport has been uneven talent discovery. A great number of athletes from small-town areas never reach the attention of federations or professional leagues until it is too late. Sportstech gives you the tools you need to fill this gap.  Federations can find talented players faster and more easily with apps that track performance, digital portfolios, and cloud-based databases for scouting. It is not merely an issue of equity. A data-driven talent pipeline also enhances the global competitiveness of domestic leagues and national teams. Nations that have invested in such systems, like Australia or the UK, have achieved long-term gains in Olympic and professional achievement. For India, embedding technology in scouting can determine if the growth of interest in non-cricket sports manifests as resilient international performance.

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    Capital Movements and Symmetries

    There has been a lot of investment in India’s sports IT market, but it hasn’t been even. Fantasy and fan-engagement applications pull the bulk of the cash, given their near-term monetisation potential. Ventures based on performance analytics, grassroots development, or coaching help struggle more to scale. This predilection towards gaming and fantasy platforms implies that funding can migrate disproportionately towards speculative or entertainment-based activities while the long-term enablers of India’s athletic ecosystem are neglected. For a sustainable future, there needs to be a more equitable investment policy. Policy incentives, impact-focused funding, and engagement with federations can channel resources toward training technology, infrastructure digitisation and athlete welfare. Without rebalancing in this way, the industry threatens to repeat the same structural problems that have traditionally restricted Indian sport.

    Regulation and Credibility

    The regulatory landscape will greatly influence the credibility of sportstech in India. Fantasy sports sites, for example, remain in a grey area in many states, raising questions regarding gambling and consumer protection. Athlete tracking and fan analytics privacy is another emerging issue. Clear, consistent frameworks are needed to ensure that innovation is not compromised by reputational risks. Across the world, sportstech has become legitimate, where regulators have made it clear, balancing consumer protection with innovation. India will require the same approach, especially with increasing cross-border investments and local companies looking for international partnerships. Transparency will foster good innovation and reassure investors and users.

    Convergence with Health and Education

    Sportstech in India’s long-term potential is its convergence with the neighbouring sectors. Health technology is a natural space for convergence. Tracking fitness, preventing injury, planning nutrition, and rehabilitating can all be provided by digital platforms, with sport being the gateway. This convergence opens the consumer base outside professional athletes or sports fans to encompass common citizens in pursuit of wellness. You could also look into schooling.   Schools typically have problems setting up organised physical activities since they don’t have enough coaches or facilities. Sportstech can fill those gaps through digital means, providing remote coaching, performance measurement and organised curricula. If well-integrated, sportstech can stand not only as an entertainment or elite sport industry, but as a health and education contributor to the nation.

    Rural Access and Inclusivity

    The potential of sports tech will remain untapped until it reaches beyond urban areas. Rural India is home to most of the nation’s youth but lacks access to facilities, equipment and coaching. Low-cost wearables, vernacular-language apps, and AI-based skill screening can facilitate bridging the gap. Collaborations between state governments, NGOs, and private companies could allow rural youth to access the same technological platforms currently available in the cities.

    Inclusivity will also need to cut across gender. Women athletes in India still have disproportionate access barriers to coaching and competition. To fix these differences, sports tech platforms that give women safe places to play, mentors, and opportunities to be seen can help.  How well the sector deals with these fundamental inequalities will partly determine its credibility.

    The Global Window

    Exporting Indian Sportstech Solutions
    Exporting Indian Sportstech Solutions

    India’s sportstech narrative is not exclusively domestic change. As a technology hub with a huge youth demographic, India can export solutions to the world. Start-ups developing AI-driven performance tools, affordable analytics, or repeatable fan-engagement platforms may discover markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where the same structural issues are present. Success in these markets would confirm India’s status as not only a consumer of international sport but also a sportstech innovation producer.

    Conclusion

    The evolution of sportstech in India is a significant turning point for the interaction between sport, society, and technology. What started off as a trend of fantasy sites and streaming services is now going into training, scouting, infrastructure and wellness. The possibilities are high, but so are the challenges. For the industry to reach its potential, three things have to come together: matching flows of investment that provide long-term development in tandem with commercial platforms; regulatory certainty that gains trust and safeguards consumers; and its focus on inclusivity, providing access across regions, genders, and socio-economic classes. On these terms, Sportstech could become the keystone of India’s sporting revolution and meaningfully add to the country’s digital economy.

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  • How far should you go with empathy at work?

    This Article has been contributed by Shiraz Khan, the founder and director of Spicetree Design Agency.

    In the last ten years, empathy has become one of the most important traits in a leader. People commonly agree it is a way to build trust, work together, and get employees involved. Leaders who pay attention, meet people’s needs, and show that they understand the problems people face at work and in their personal lives can make people feel safe and respected enough to speak up. Empathy helps bring people together, ease tensions, and keep morale high in today’s workplaces, which are becoming more diverse, spread out, and subject to rapid change. There is little doubt that it is a key part of a healthy company culture. But like any other quality of a good leader, its strength comes from how it is used. Empathy can hurt the performance it wants to improve if there are no limits.

    Empathy is not the problem; the way it is used is the problem. Leaders who constantly change deadlines, let people off the hook for unfulfilled promises, or protect staff from the repercussions of poor performance in the name of understanding risk make responsibility less important. At first, this kind of forbearance may seem like kindness and flexibility. But over time, it can make the playing field uneven, with those who always deliver feeling less motivated and others seeming to take concessions for granted. The change is usually small. A missed deadline because of a momentary personal problem becomes a habit, and a less workload to relieve stress becomes the norm. Empathy without bounds can make standards less clear, discipline less strict, and ultimately damage an organisation’s results.

    One of the hardest parts of being a leader is finding the appropriate balance between being kind and being responsible. It’s not possible to only focus on targets and not people. This is especially true in fields where creativity, problem-solving, and working together are important. Also, being too accommodating could lead to a culture where people think expectations are up to negotiation. Effective leaders know that caring for people and being committed to getting outcomes are not two things that are at odds with one another; they are two things that work together. The goal is to bring them together in a way that keeps both morale and performance high.

    To get this balance, you need to be clear first. Teams need to know what is expected regarding timelines, quality standards, and working together. These things should be clearly spelt out. When you give someone more freedom, you should also provide them with a clear plan on how to reach the goals you both agreed on. This will help keep the end aim in mind. This method shows that the company cares about its employees’ health and well-being and expects them to keep their promises. The path taken is what makes it flexible.

    Leaders must also consistently use these principles, which are just as vital. Selective empathy, which is when you show empathy to particular people or teams more often than others, can make people angry and hurt your reputation. This is why being open and honest with each other is so important. Employees are more likely to see choices as fair when they are presented clearly and when both concessions and corrective actions are used properly. Leaders must also make sure that there are ways for people to give and get feedback, so that accomplishments are recognised and problems are dealt with quickly. Regular, planned conversations between managers and employees can help keep individual needs and organisational goals in sync.

  • How AI and RPA Are Redefining Financial Operations in the Telecom Sector: A 17-Year Perspective on a Revolution in Progress

    This article has been contributed by Neeraj Gupta, GM-PeX Head Global (India/Africa), Bharti Airtel Ltd

    Reflecting on my 17 years in the Indian telecom finance domain, the transformation has been nothing short of breath-taking. I began my career in an era of paper ledgers/Tally and manual reconciliations, where the sheer scale of our operations was a constant, looming challenge. Today, I lead finance teams in a world driven by data, automation, and intelligence where technology is not just an enabler but the foundation of our function.

    The financial complexity of the telecom sector is unique. It’s a high-volume, capital-intensive industry where billions of dollars flow through our systems daily. We process millions of customer recharge transactions, manage complex settlements with a vast network of channel partners, and account for a massive base of fixed assets. In India, with a mobile tower needed every 300 meters or less in dense urban areas post-5G, our fixed asset register contains over 150 million individual assets.

    In this environment of extreme volume and velocity, leveraging technology is not an option; it’s the only way to ensure efficiency, accuracy, and compliance. The catalysts for the current revolution are Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and other emerging technologies , which are reshaping finance from a reactive, back-office cost center into a proactive, strategic partner to the business.

    However, the journey isn’t a simple plug-and-play affair. It began with basic RPA handling repetitive, rule-based tasks, which delivered quick wins. But many organizations hit a plateau, finding it difficult to identify new high-ROI opportunities. The key to unlocking sustained value lies not in the technology itself, but in the strategic decision to embed AI within a broader agenda of fundamental process transformation.

    Redefining Revenue: From Reconciliation to Intelligence

    One of our greatest historical challenges was reconciling millions of daily customer recharges across our ERP, billing, and banking systems—a process fraught with the risk of revenue leakage and fraud. To tackle this, we pioneered an industry-first AI-based reconciliation engine. The results were incredible: we achieved massive manpower efficiency and established real-time fraud alerts that prevented significant financial losses.

    That was just the beginning. The next wave of technology is moving us from reconciling the past to actively predicting the future.

    • Predictive Revenue Assurance: Modern AI and machine learning (ML) frameworks, such as those offered by AWS, Subex, and Neural Technologies, now use unsupervised learning to analyze vast data streams in real-time, detecting subtle anomalies and new fraud patterns that rule-based systems would miss.
    • Smarter Cash Flow: ML platforms can scrutinize historical payment data and customer behavior to predict which customers are likely to pay late, forecast Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) with high accuracy, and recommend effective collection strategies from reactive collection to predictive forecasting. This transforms the AR team into a strategic driver of working capital.
    • GenAI for Communications & Dispute Resolution: Generative AI is revolutionizing customer interactions. For instance, Billtrust’s GenAI-powered email assistant for collectors has cut the average email response time from eight minutes to just two and a half.

    The AR department is no longer just closing the books; it’s becoming a strategic intelligence hub, providing forward-looking insights into cash flow, customer financial health, and risk.

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    Taming the Beast of Intelligent Asset Management

    The scale of our fixed assets is difficult to comprehend—our register exceeds 150 million assets and 30 GB of data. Managing this portfolio without advanced technology would be impossible. The foundation for modern asset management is a powerful, cloud-based ERP system. A landmark example is Vodafone’s migration of its colossal SAP system to Google Cloud, a move that yielded multi-million Euro savings and significant performance boosts.

    • The Rise of the Digital Twin and IoT: The next frontier is connecting the physical asset to its digital record in the ERP in real-time. IoT (Internet of Things ) sensors deployed on critical assets like cell towers can monitor everything from energy consumption to structural integrity, streaming live data to the cloud. This data, combined with drone imagery, allows for the creation of a “digital twin” a dynamic virtual replica of a physical tower. Using this twin, engineers can remotely monitor an asset’s health and simulate the impact of adding new equipment without a physical site visit.
    • AI-Powered Predictive Maintenance: This convergence of data enables the most significant leap forward: predictive maintenance. Instead of reacting to failures, leading international operators are already using AI to forecast network failures, reduce downtime, and lower operational costs. The finance team must now work hand-in-glove with network operations, breaking down historical silos and making the CFO’s role more operationally integrated than ever before.

    Automating the Engine Room: The Evolution of Accounts Payable 

    In my own experience, one of our most impactful early automation projects was in Accounts Payable.zWe faced a relentless influx of invoices. By implementing RPA with OCR and ML, we achieved faster processing, reduced errors, and boosted vendor satisfaction. Today, the market has evolved to comprehensive, that manage the entire invoice lifecycle—from intelligent data capture and automated validation to smart approvals and embedded fraud detection, slashing process time by up to 70%. 

    The next frontier is Agentic AI, which could independently query a vendor about a mismatched invoice and propose a resolution, freeing up finance professionals for truly strategic work.

    The value of AP automation creates a positive effect across the business. It extends far beyond the finance department’s P&L. Efficient, error-free invoice processing leads to reliable, on-time payments. This strengthens vendor relationships, giving the procurement team greater leverage to negotiate better terms and secure early payment discounts.

    Streamlining the Partner Ecosystem: Customer & Channel Accounting

    Enhancing Telecom Partner Relationship
    Enhancing Telecom Partner Relationship

    For a telecom operator, our vast network of distributors, resellers, and channel partners is a critical route to market. This efficiency extends to the complex world of channel partner finance. Intelligent Recon tools, Modern Digital Partner Management platforms automate everything from partner onboarding to the settlement of intricate revenue-sharing models. A persistent pain point for partners is a lack of visibility into their earnings; new systems now provide real-time commission calculations via dedicated dashboards. In a competitive market, a financial relationship built on speed and transparency becomes a key differentiator to attract and retain the best partners.

    The regulatory landscape is a complex maze. Our initial steps in automating GST compliance and related-party disclosures have paved the way for a more integrated approach to tax, compliance, and reporting.

    • TaxTech:  Our journey began with a cloud-based tool to manage GST compliance. For a company of our scale, manually handling the intricacies of the GST regime, reconciling GSTR-1A and 2B, managing input tax credits, and placing vendor payment holds based on filing status, is simply not feasible. These available cloud available  who offer direct API integration with government portals and ERP systems, automating tax calculations and filings. 
    • Governance, Compliance, and the Rise of RegTech: Legacy GRC systems, born from regulations like SOX, buried finance teams in a flood of “false positive” alerts. Today, AI-powered RegTech is flipping the model from reactive to proactive. Instead of reactive, Continuous Control Monitoring (CCM) analyzes 100% of transactions in real-time. System-Based Financial Delegation of Authority (FDoA) moves beyond static policy documents, embedding and actively enforcing approval rules directly within core financial systems. Meanwhile, intelligent document analysis combines AI and OCR to spot sophisticated invoice fraud that rule-based checks would miss. This shift transforms compliance from a noisy, reactive cost center into an intelligent, proactive shield, allowing human experts to focus on strategic risk instead of chasing ghosts in the machine.
    • AI-Driven FP&A: The next evolution in reporting is AI-driven Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A). Modern platforms like Anaplan and Oracle Cloud EPM allow teams to model hundreds of potential business scenarios in seconds and generate more accurate, rolling forecasts that continuously learn from new data. A revolutionary feature is  natural language interaction; a CFO can now ask a dashboard in plain English, “What was our gross margin trend last quarter?” and receive an instant answer, democratizing data access and accelerating decision-making.

    Overall Summary

    The following table provides a roadmap of this transformation across the key verticals of telecom finance, which we discussed and  outlining the journey from traditional challenges to the value unlocked by next-generation technology

    Finance Vertical

    Traditional Challenge

    Existing Solution-(My Experience)

    Next-Generation Technology

    Value Unlocked

    Accounts Receivable

    High-volume reconciliation, revenue leakage, and fraud

    AI-based reconciliation engine

    Predictive Analytics, Generative AI Comms

    Efficiency, Fraud Prevention, Faster Cash Flow

    Fixed Assets

    Massive scale, manual tracking, depreciation complexity

    Technology-enabled accounting

    IoT, Digital Twins, AI Predictive Maintenance

    Real-time Visibility, Reduced Downtime, CAPEX Optimisation

    Accounts Payable

    High invoice volume, manual data entry, errors

    RPA & OCR/ML for invoice processing

    End-to-End AI Automation Platforms

    Faster Processing, Improved Vendor Relations, Cost Savings

    Customer & Channel

    Complex partner settlements, manual commission calculations

    AI-powered collection posting

    Digital Partner Management, Real-time Commissions

    Partner Satisfaction, Revenue Assurance, and Scalability

    Taxation

    Complex GST compliance, risk of erroneous payments

    Cloud-based GST compliance tool

    Full-Stack TaxTech Platforms

    Enhanced Compliance, Reduced Risk, Audit Readiness

    Compliance & Reporting

    High-risk disclosures (e.g., related-party), manual checks

    Automation for transaction classification & booking

    RegTech, AI-based Transaction Monitoring

    Proactive Risk Management, Transparency, Governance

    CFO/CEO Reporting

    Static reports, delayed insights

    Cloud-based BI and analytics

    AI-driven FP&A, Natural Language Dashboards

    Strategic Agility, Real-time Decision-Making

    The Unspoken Prerequisite: Process Before Technology

    The most critical lesson from my 17 years is this: technology applied to an inefficient process will only magnify the inefficiency. The successes I’ve witnessed were not just technology projects; they were business transformation projects. We didn’t just buy an AI engine; we fundamentally redesigned the entire workflow from the ground up.

    This process-first philosophy is the unspoken prerequisite for success. Research by BCG found that embedding AI initiatives into a broader transformation agenda increases the probability of success significantly. The greatest returns come from eliminating redundant steps, not just making existing ones faster.

    Conclusion: The Dawn of the Autonomous Finance Function

    Across telecom finance, a profound transformation is underway. AR is now a predictive revenue hub, asset management is an intelligent, real-time function, and reporting is a dynamic, forward-looking dialogue. The convergence of AI, RPA, and specialized cloud applications is dissolving traditional silos, paving the way for the ultimate goal: the Autonomous Finance Function.

    In the future, Agentic AI will handle complex exceptions, digital twins will autonomously trigger financial forecasts, and FP&A models will self-correct in real-time. We are moving beyond simply recording financial history to an era where we can actively predict and shape our economic future. The finance professional of tomorrow is not an accountant, but a strategist, analyst, and data scientist, empowered by intelligent technology to drive value at every turn. The revolution is here, and it is autonomous.

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  • Reimagining Elder Care: Moving from Institutional Solutions to Community-Driven Models

    This article has been contributed by Mr. Remeshan Palery, Chairman, Uralungal Labour Contract Co-operative Society

    India is now at a demographic crossroad, with the promise of the country’s economic development intersecting with the rapidly ageing population of over 140 million. The nation’s elderly population, defined as those aged 60 and above, is projected to further grow to 193.4 million by 2031, almost one-fourth of the total citizenry. This comes with its own set of challenges like how to care for the ageing while simultaneously tackling issues related to infectious diseases, maternal and child health, and the increasing prevalence of non-communicable diseases.

    The challenge ahead is not so much as to how to care for our seniors but how to do it in a way that preserves dignity and purpose, while maintaining social connections. Old-age homes have long been synonymous with elderly care globally. These avenues provide support, yet they highlight the need for more holistic spaces where care and companionship come together. The future of care of India’s senior citizens should not only be limited to the institutions but attention should be made towards the community.

    Institutional Fatigue

    Institutions draw strength from community contributions, which help provide medical supplies, equipment, and staff support. While some face infrastructural limitations, efforts are ongoing to create spaces where elderly residents can access regular healthcare and meaningful social engagement. Even more deeply, these spaces can cut off the heart’s attachment to the idea of ‘home’. The move to these types of homes for elderly is not only an uprooting from a familiar environment, but a loss of freedom and of social connections for some senior citizens.

    This is not to imply that such institutions lack value; there is certainly a role for them in situations of neglect or severe illness. However, making institutionalisation the primary option is both costly and culturally invalid. The intergenerational and familial traditions in India call for more nuanced and implicit approaches.

    Community Care Works Better

    Community Care Enhances Well - Being and Independence
    Community Care Enhances Well – Being and Independence

    Across the globe, communities are addressing the challenge of providing elder care that maintains dignity, freedom, and social connection without uprooting them from their familiar environments. In South Korea, community-based elder circles actively involve seniors in the daily activities of the village. In Thailand, participatory day-care systems that engage residents have seen broader adoption and greater success. These systems do not displace elders from their surroundings; rather, they integrate support into their care networks.

    The evidence is compelling. Community-based care and day-care services for the elderly boost mental well-being curb hospitalisation and can even delay the encroachment of long-term disabilities. Unlike facilities-based care, these alternatives believe ‘in ageing at home,’ which provides comfort in returning home each at the beginning and end of day while realising some level of independence while also needing some assistance. They ease the family’s load and the children can work without a guilty conscience, confident that their parents are being taken care of in a safe and stimulating environment.

    Rewriting the Narrative

    The Longitudinal Ageing Study of India revealed that nearly three-quarters of the elderly population suffer from one or more chronic illnesses, and about one-third exhibit symptoms of depression. Concentrating care only in urban centres leaves a significant opportunity to extend support to rural communities, where large populations of elderly seek accessible services.

    Concurrent with this, the clinical picture of ageing is becoming more complex. Geriatricians remain locked in combat with the traditional ‘giants’ that still threaten, such as immobility, instability, incontinence, and cognitive decline. The pandemic of COVID-19 served, once again, to expose the frailties in what we consider elder care: older adults not only faced markedly elevated mortality risks but were also subjected to profound social isolation and undertreated mental health conditions. Such revelations reaffirm that, community-centre day-care lounges, where social stimulation, nutritional aid, and health surveillance merge, prove decidedly more advantageous than institutions that attend to only one of these domains.

    With dementia and Alzheimer’s already affecting nearly 9 million elderly Indians—a number set to triple by 2050—the urgency for community-based care models becomes even greater. Such approaches not only provide medical oversight but also preserve dignity and social connection for those most vulnerable.

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    Growing Old Gracefully

    At the centre of community care is respect. Elders are not merely patients or dependants to be enumerated but beings with interests, skills, and worth. A day-care programme with morning physiotherapy, noon lunch, and music or reading clubs in the afternoon makes ageing an activity of living and not waiting. While so doing, it also protects families from the shame of ‘sending’ parents away.

    Observations from many corners of the world show that graceful ageing rarely depends on the finest amenities; instead, it revolves around the quiet power of being part of a community. Elders thrive when they can remain in homes they know, surrounded by neighbours, volunteer circle, and community health workers who arrive not as rote professionals but as family of choice. Such neighbourhood gatherings do not replace blood relatives; they expand the family tree. Elders receive the steady laughter of live neighbours instead of anonymous nightly shifts, keeping memory, compassion, and dignity fully intact, far from the chilly silence of many distant care facilities.

    At the same time, institutions continue to play an important role in elder care—not as standalone endpoints but as partners within Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) models. While communities provide day-to-day support, social integration, and continuity of home life, institutions can strengthen these efforts with specialised healthcare, training, and resources. Together, this hybrid model ensures that seniors receive both the warmth of community and the expertise of medical systems.

    Policy, Research, Culture

    True, sustainable transformation in elder care can only succeed when national policy keeps pace with rapidly changing population trends. National health initiatives aimed at strengthening geriatric care and expanding wellness centres across the country offer clear potential. What is now mandated is strategic scaling in the direction of community-based care, so that seniors find virtually seamless support where they reside, into networks they already trust.

    Simultaneously, it is essential that ageing research bring elderly participants on board as co-researchers and partners. Expanded collaboration guarantees that the proof is far more representative and that promising treatments centre on lived needs, not on assumptions. The next generation of breakthroughs will matter more when scientists design them with older adults’ actual physiology and day-to-day experience as the starting point, rather than simply adjusting formulations originally meant for younger cohorts.

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    Future Rooted in Community

    For elderly care in India to be meaningfully reimagined, three deliberate turns are to be explored. The first is reallocation of financial resources: rather than more gated retirement projects, we must build tight-knit community hubs that bring services, social life, and safety within walking distance. The second turn has to be in financing itself: instead of individual contributions, we require blended models couched in long-term feasibility, where public subsidies, corporate responsibility pools, and local giving coalesce to create resilient everyday ecosystems. Finally, elderly care must be conceived in comprehensive breadth, including changing health requirements, resilient hearts, nourishing plates, and shared calendars, rather than bundled into a narrow, clinical script.

    Demography will not defer: India will certainly see more older people. How compassion, creativity, and stamina reconfigure that demographic is a test of moral, not merely fiscal, value. Our next foot forward, must foreground a commitment not to build greater distance, but to anchor, honour, and reorganise the neighbourhoods we already walk through. That is not merely a managerial choice: it is a durable social inheritance we leave to the tomorrow we will itself be.

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  • Silver Tourism: Why Senior Citizens Are Leading the Next Wave of Medical Travel

    This article has been contributed by Mr. Pankaj Chandna, Co-Founder, Vaidam Health

    The golden years are bout exploring, thriving, and prioritizing health. Across the globe, a powerful trend called Silver Tourism is reshaping the way we think about retirement and healthcare. Silver Tourism refers to senior citizens traveling abroad not just for leisure, but for medical treatments, wellness therapies, and rehabilitation programs and it’s not a passing fad, it’s the next frontier in medical travel.

    Most seniors are faced with ailments such as arthritis, joint discomfort, heart problems, or the necessity of specialist diagnostics and elective procedures. Sadly, in their home countries, particularly in developed ones, it is usually very costly to access medical care, and wait times for necessary treatments can be long. This is why increasing numbers of senior citizens are now accessing quality healthcare abroad where they are able to receive timely, quality, and specialist medical treatment.

    Each year, on August 21st, the world observes Senior Citizens Day. It is a day to celebrate the wisdom, experience, and knowledge of older citizens.  This year, Senior Citizens Day 2025 puts in the limelight an intriguing trend something called “Silver Tourism.” The term might sound novel, but it is redefining what we know about tourism and medicine.

    Over the past few years, the medical tourism sector has been flourishing, as individuals traveled from country to country to access cost-effective, quality healthcare. While youngsters tend to travel for elective procedures, cosmetic procedures, or health resorts, elderly people are now the biggest chunk propelling this sector ahead. There is a simple but compelling reason: escalating healthcare costs in their native countries, increased life expectancy, improved connectivity around the world, and a desire to receive quality care in their golden years.

    Top Medical Tourism Destination for Seniors
    Top Medical Tourism Destination for Seniors

    One of the primary reasons that seniors are leading the boom in medical tourism is the increasing cost of healthcare in their native countries. In developed countries such as the United States, Canada, and much of Europe, hospitalization, surgery, and even minor medical treatment can prove very costly. Retirees, often living on pensions or limited funds, find it hard to absorb these charges. Conversely, nations such as India, Thailand, Malaysia, and Mexico provide the same medical treatments for one-tenth of the cost, without sacrificing quality. For an elderly citizen who desires to lead a more energetic life without sacrificing their entire savings, this split is transformative.

    Aside from cost, the other major reason is the quality of medical care now being made accessible worldwide. The hospitals at major medical tourist destinations are internationally accredited, and staffed by extremely skilled physicians. Several of these physicians have trained or practiced overseas and brought world expertise back home. Today’s seniors are better educated and linked than ever before. They search for hospitals online, check reviews, and even talk to other patients before making a decision. This makes them feel confident that they are in safe hands, although they are away from home.

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    But Silver Tourism is not just about surgery or medical interventions. Seniors are also looking for wellness and recovery programs that enable them to grow old gracefully. After all, health isn’t just the cure for illness, it’s also prevention. Many elderly people now take trips for holistic wellness retreats, Ayurveda treatments, yoga retreats, or spa-based recuperative treatments. India, with its indigenous healing traditions has become popular travel destinations for seniors looking to restore their bodies and minds. These wellness trips add the pleasure of travel to the protection of healthcare, providing a noticible experience for seniors.

    Increased life expectancy is another crucial factor of Silver Tourism. Seniors nowadays are more active, healthier, and willing to explore the world than previous generations. They do not feel like staying home after retirement. Rather than viewing retirement as a time to slow down, they view it as a time to experience the world, make new friends, and invest in their health. For some, medical travel is not about need but about desire to live life to its fullest even in old age.

    Medical travel has also been facilitated by technology for older people. Medical packages can be booked, video consults with physicians arranged, and online access to health records are all easy tasks. Seniors now are more tech-literate, and even those without are supported by children or caregivers who facilitate the process. Most medical tourism companies like Vaidam Health specialize in assisting seniors through each step, from visa processing to rehabilitation after surgery. This eases the stress and provides assurance to both the patient and their families.

    Families also have a significant role to play in Silver Tourism. In most instances, the children encourage their parents to travel overseas for improved treatment and even accompany them as companions. Medical travel thus becomes not only a healthcare option but also a family experience. One can imagine a senior traveling overseas for cataract or hip replacement and then spending a week touring with their children or grandchildren. Such journeys make people form memories and emphasize the value of togetherness and care in late life.

    With life expectancy rising steadily, and seniors becoming more adventurous, Silver Tourism is going to be the fastest-growing segment of medical travel. Silver Tourism is a statement of resilience, wisdom, and the desire to live life to its fullest, even in later years.

    On this Senior Citizens Day 2025, it is time to recognise how the silver generation is redefining aging, making their golden years shine brighter than ever.

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  • Reimagining Ageing: How AgeTech Can Transform the Lives of India’s 60+ Generation

    This article has been contributed by Meenakshi Menon, Founder, Gen S Life

    India is home to over 180 million 60+, projected from the 150 million in 2022, a number expected to almost double by 2050. This change in demographics is going to be a big economic burden for a society like ours, which is given to supporting an ageist narrative. The demographic change will have long-term effects on the nation’s economy, culture and society, given that the average age is increasing almost every year. With millions of seniors feeling undervalued, underutilised and underestimated, we are fertile ground for emotional and economic strife.

    That is why we need a fresh lens to look at this situation. Social mores are cyclical. Traditionally, seniors were considered to be wise and wanted. Their contributions to the family and society were always recognised. Then, post-Industrialisation, they became unpaid labor primarily to support child rearing, and the social stigma of “leaving” your parents ensured they always had a roof over their heads, if nothing else. Today, with increasing migration among the younger generation, we are left with a society where the value of the Senior population is shrinking both in the eyes of the next generation as well as in their own eyes. Living longer, considering you are a burden, makes for some very unhappy people, whose numbers are growing.

    Which is where Technology comes into the picture. Can we look at a solution that is specially crafted for our seniors, Indian Seniors who have a very unique view of the World, where Family is relevant, but having freedom of choice and Independence is equally relevant. For a long time, growing older has been seen only as a stage of dependence and decline.  Seniors are considered a vulnerable and weak category of society. But technology can help us change this view and shift the focus to supporting independence, active living, and dignity for Indian Seniors across the Nation.

    The Promise of Technology, now seen as AgeTech

    The standard take on Technology for seniors has been Health Tech. Health monitoring devices, sensors to track vitals, devices to detect falls, safety devices, etc. All of these are for seniors who are frail, sickly, vulnerable and fearful. What about the healthy 65-year-old who is more interested in socializing than sharing weekly uric acid scores? What about the 70-year-old who wants to learn to sing act, or Dance? What about the 75-year-old who has a second home and wants to retain it? The Senior cohort is not a homogeneous lot; that’s a common mistake. The senior cohort is as heterogeneous as any other age group. Unfortunately, unlike other age groups, seniors tend to be lumped together as frail, sickly individuals who are just waiting to exit. Technology can change this narrative by providing access to services that are required by new-age seniors. Social networks, financial options, Entertainment, engagement, community, Safety, Security, Concierge and Assistance, Group Insurance and Travel. These are but a set of issues that Tech needs to address. The true promise of AgeTech lies in going beyond the norm, putting the World of new experiences within the reach of the Seniors, giving them their life back. Giving them the option of choice. Tech becomes the enabler,  creating ecosystems of support that address social, emotional, financial, and lifestyle needs.

    Other than the health sector, think of any senior person who can seamlessly join a virtual event (music, dance, painting workshops and so many other opportunities), manage finances with just one click, or engage with peers through online communities. It is achievable with the thoughtful integration of technology.

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    Tackling Loneliness Through Connection

    One of the pressing challenges for seniors in India is social isolation. With children often migrating to other cities or abroad, many seniors experience loneliness, which can be as harmful to health as chronic disease. AgeTech has its solutions, such as intuitive video-calling platforms, community apps, or virtual hobby groups that can bridge this gap. The key lies in designing tools that are simple, language-friendly, and accessible, ensuring that no senior feels left behind in the digital age. 

    Purpose Beyond Survival

    Ageing is not just about survival; it is about living with purpose. Technology can open new avenues for seniors to contribute their wisdom and skills. Platforms for mentorship, storytelling, or even micro-entrepreneurship can help seniors remain active participants in society. For India’s 60+ population, AgeTech must be seen not as charity, but as a means of harnessing a reservoir of experience that benefits communities at large. While India is rapidly urbanising, nearly 70% of its elderly population still lives in rural areas.

    Access to quality healthcare, mobility aids, and digital literacy remains limited outside major cities. Elderly women, who often have lower financial independence, face an additional layer of vulnerability. At the same time, there is a shift in family structures. With smaller nuclear families and children migrating for work, seniors increasingly find themselves navigating daily life independently. This reality makes AgeTech not just an option but a necessity to ensure safety, connection, and care.

    Trust is another barrier; seniors are wary of fraud, misuse of data, or being overwhelmed by complex interfaces. Finally, cultural attitudes towards ageing sometimes discourage seniors from embracing new tools, reinforcing the belief that “technology is for the young”, whereas it has been shown in research of 2021 that 61% of seniors aged 65+ are using technologies. Look at the near universal adoption of WhatsApp and YouTube. Two incredibly sophisticated tech platforms but given their intrinsic value and ease of use, adopted by almost the entire universe of seniors. That Seniors are technophobic is a popular trope. As far from the truth as can be. Our research clearly demonstrates that tech adoption is high when Language barriers are erased and when costs are low to Zero.

    For India, the challenge and opportunity lie in localising these innovations and making them affordable, culturally relevant, and accessible in multiple languages. Our app is an example that fills the gap between seniors and tech.

    Designing Products and Services for Aging Consumers
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    Ageing With Dignity and Independence

    AgeTech's Vision for Dignified Ageing
    AgeTech’s Vision for Dignified Ageing

    At the heart of AgeTech, our main motto lies a simple idea: ageing should be about living with dignity, purpose, and independence. Technology is not a replacement for human connection, but a tool to strengthen it. By ensuring seniors remain connected, financially secure, healthy, and purposeful, AgeTech has the power to transform India’s demographic challenge into an opportunity. Reimagining ageing is not just about adding years to life, but about adding life to years. 

    And here comes our lifestyle app- Gen S life that brings together services and resources that promote health, wellness, safety, financial independence, travel, and meaningful engagement, helping seniors lead active, connected, and fulfilling lives. By creating opportunities for support and participation, Gen S Life aims to make ageing a journey of dignity, confidence, and purpose.

    Reimagining Ageing for India

    As India steps into the future, it is time to see ageing not as a challenge to be managed, but as an opportunity to be reimagined, one where seniors are not left behind, but carried forward with the dignity they deserve.

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