Technology driving elderly care

Hyderabad: According to a survey conducted six years ago in the city, revealed 60 per cent of people who beg at 100 traffic junctions are elderly destitute. Any technology developed for senior citizens care must be inclusive, said Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Telangana State. He was speaking at the 3rd UNMUKT Knowledge Series here in the city at T-Hub at IIIT-Hyderabad campus here on Friday.

The theme for the UNMUKT Knowledge Series was "Technology-Driving Growth in Senior Care". It was organised in partnership with T-Hub, RICH, Action for India, and Assistive Technology Accelerator.

A selfie enough for pensioners

The Telangana State uses technology to address some of the issues of senior care especially for pensioners. It is mandatory that the pensioners must appear physically once a year to prove that they are alive. An App is developed to help and the pensioner of the State government can submit the life certificate through 'T-App' without visiting either pension drawing banks or treasury offices. They can even post their selfie as proof that they are alive.

"We judge the picture shared on the App for the liveliness with 99.5% accuracy. This is how Technology can help seniors, he shared. The older and the more dependency on others. Such elderly cannot travel once in a year to prove that they are still alive," Jayesh informed. Ravi Narayan, CEO of T-Hub said, India's biggest incubator T-Hub, is looking for ideas to enable them through technology. Affordable technology is the key and it will be a driver in elderly care". He also observed that less than 5% of startups are engaged in social space. And a very small portion within this social space focus on problems related to elderly care.