• Aiming to encourage the youth to find innovative solutions to help senior citizens, the government announced Seniorcare Ageing Growth Engine (SAGE) project on June 4.

• Its main objective is to select, support and create a one-stop access point of elderly care products and services by credible startups.

Significance of the project

• India’s elderly population is on the rise, and as per surveys, the share of elders, as a percentage of the total population in the country, is expected to increase from around 7.5 per cent in 2001 to almost 12.5 per cent by 2026, and surpass 19.5 per cent by 2050. 

• There is an urgent need to create a more robust elder care ecosystem in India, especially in the post-COVID phase.

• The project is shaped by the recommendations of an empowered expert committee (EEC) report on startups for the elderly to solicit the involvement of youth and their innovative ideas for elderly care.

• This will help to make the programmes for elderly care a national movement rather than just a government programme.

• The SAGE project aims to identify, evaluate, verify, aggregate and deliver products, solutions and services directly to the stakeholders. 

• The ministry of social justice and empowerment will act as a facilitator, enabling the elderly to access the products through these identified startups.

• An allocation of Rs 25 crore has been made for the SAGE project in the financial year 2021-22.

How will it be implemented?

• As part of the project, startups will be selected on the basis of innovative products and services which they should be able to provide across sectors such as health, housing, care centres, apart from technological access linked to finances, food and wealth management and legal guidance.

• The startups can apply to be a part of SAGE through a dedicated portal which will be open from June 5.

• The selection will be done by an independent committee of experts. 

• The first set of selected startups will be hosted on the portal within a period of two months and a fund of Rs 1 crore as one-time equity will be granted to each of them.

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