Gift A Pension: a unique initiative to add financial cushion to the lives of helpers around us

My driver Des Raj is more than 70 years of age. He joined me nearly two decades back and has continued to work for me ever since. His long stint with us and congeniality makes him a part of the family, not just an employee.

At an age when he should be sitting at home and enjoying the winter of his life after having worked hard all his life, he has to report to a job day after day. The word ‘retirement’ does not exist for him!

When I once mentioned the idea of retiring to him, he laughed it away.

“You must be kidding. I must continue to work till the day I die. How do you think I’m going to eat if I stop working?”

We are all hugely dependent upon people like Des Raj and others like him around us, so much so that life goes topsy-turvy if any of them does not turn up unexpectedly.

We do pay them for their services, of course. But are we doing enough?

Don’t they deserve a pension when they grow old for having made our lives so much more easy while in their prime?

Gift A Pension: a MPF project to help people with tiny or no savings at all

Old age financial insecurity is a challenging problem for India at large, and the concept of retirement and pension evades most of the working population, especially those in the low income workforce.

At present, 90% of India’s 487 million strong workforce is employed in the informal sector and has no social security. They are employed as domestic helps, nannies, gardeners, cooks, drivers, guards, etc.  Add to it your raddi-wala, dabba-wala, dhobi, watchman, the doodh-wala and so many more. Sadly, almost none of them have any cushion for their old age.

The Micro Pension Foundation, which was set up to use technology to design innovative models to deliver a social security solution to this segment, found out that there are 40 million domestic workers in the country. Sensing that some of these people want to save but are limited by awareness and access, they came up with the unique Gift A Pension initiative.

Gift A Pension is a web-based platform that enables employers to enrol their domestic help for pension benefits. By enrolling their domestic workers under this plan, employers can assist their helpers draw a respectable pension by the time they decide to quit their job.

The enrolees under this plan will be supported by the government to the tune of Rs 1,000 every year for the first few years (under the Government of India National Pension Scheme), in addition to which they will get a Rs. 30,000 pure term life insurance cover from SBI Life, and a simple, secure and convenient payment solution with VISA. After their enrolment, the platform directly communicates with the domestic worker for regular savings and ongoing services.

“Gift a Pension brings together digital and financial inclusion in a unique way. Individual employers across the country can enroll their domestic help for the national pension product online, and the platform takes responsibility for ongoing servicing of these domestic workers. We can empower 1 million domestic workers in just one week using this platform,” explains Parul Khanna, Associate Director, Micro Pension Foundation.

Though the concept unveiled and launched by the parent company MPF in September 2014 is unique and laudable, it has not been as big a hit as it should have been. Inspite of drawing appreciation from all quarters for their path-breaking effort in trying to provide financial security for those not managing to save enough, the problem lies in getting the domestic workers to enroll!

Convincing them about the need for saving, and that their savings will be in safe hands has not been easy, as any of the 450 employers who have finally managed to enroll their helpers with GiftAPension will endorse.

Atul Vaidya, a banker from Bengaluru who wanted to reward his loyal maid of three years after learning about this plan, could not have agreed more on that! Keen to help the girl who had helped his working wife and him raise a kid while they would leave for their respective offices every day, he had to call the 20-year-old girl’s mom and dad to his place a couple of times to make them understand the need to save for a rainy day. Talking about a pension, he now recalls, came much later!

“Though they were thrilled with the idea of getting a regular stream of funds even after they cease to work, they were obviously not happy with the idea of not being able to use a small part of it every month for now,” says Atul.

Besides a wee bit of cajoling from Atul and his wife Aparna, the simpletons hailing from a remote village in Bihar had to be shown the interactive demos videos on the Gift A Pension site to assure them that the money would be accessible to them no matter where they went (even after they changed their employer or chose to go back to their village) and that they could choose to skip an installment in times of need.

“She now puts in Rs 300 from her side while Aparna and I are happy to co-contribute Rs 200 each month for this wonderful girl. At less than the price of a pizza, I can help her save for her old age. And, believe me, it’s a great feeling,” says a proud Atul.

The 20-year-old girl will be able to draw a pension of nearly Rs 7,600 every month if she continues to save at this rate. Fair enough for someone who earns Rs 6,000 a month now!

The role of the employer is limited to the process of enrolment for which they are also charged a onetime fee of Rs 300. The workers can then go on to save their micro savings from time to time using the Micro Pension prepaid card which they are given along with the welcome kit or using their bank account, if they do have one.

The card can then be recharged just like a prepaid mobile phone-online by any employer, and/ or they can load it themselves at multiple outlets located across the country.

“You can reward someone who has been good to you in four simple and very easy steps,” explains Parul.

“The initial enrolment is done online entirely. Within four days of enrolling, you get a courier delivered at your mentioned address. You then have to get the signatures of your helper. After that, the courier gets picked up again from your doorstep, to make it super convenient,” she adds.

Having succeeded in creating a buzz about their plan within six months of their launch, the Gift A Pension website now gets nearly 500 to 1,000 hits every day.

The conversion rate has not been very encouraging so far but 1,400 employers have registered already, and 450 enrolments have been completed.

“We are very excited about the uptake in Bangalore and Mumbai, but are also keen to get more traction in Delhi/ NCR, which is home to most of us,” mentions one of the team members.

Not a bad beginning for an organization which is trying to find takers for an idea which has been marred due to a lack of demand for it!

Out of the people who have come forward to enroll so far, 55% of the enrollees have been women. 63% of these enrolments were completed using an Aadhaar card while 11% of the employers have set up an auto debit instruction on their credit card.

“We are thrilled to be able to gift the promise of an independent old age to Nirmala (their full time help). It is also nice to see her develop a habit of saving, which is a real win for us,” says the retired Kasbekar couple from Mumbai, both of whose sons are settled in the US and for whom life without their daily helper, the ever smiling 26 year old, would be unimaginable.

The small Gift a Pension team, working from a tiny cell in Delhi, inspite of having made a humble beginning, is upbeat.

“Our first goal is to reach out to more individuals and enable more low income workers to save for a dignified old age using the platform. Using this platform, we can enable a million lives this week alone. Over time, we also plan to introduce other products, including health insurance,” they add when asked about their future plans.

Though the thought of not being able to help Des Raj with a pension is upsetting, everyone in the family is thrilled with the fact that his 20-year-old grandson Monu, who started working as a helper at a Xerox shop recently, will be enrolling this weekend.

Children oriented startups cashing in on parents who're short on time

Double income families, that are strapped for time, have become big spenders on children's products and services, which is proving to be a lucrative market for startups. Companies like Experifun, Magic Crate and Kidology are cashing in on this trend and have business models designed entirely to cater to children.

Bengaluru-based Funfinity Learning Solutions that runs Magiccrate.in, an online subscription service for 4-8 year olds, has designed theme-based activity boxes for children where the outcome is a toy or an artefact. Viswanathan Ramakrishnan, CEO, Funfinity Learning Solutions, said: "In this age bracket, they spend a lot of time at home and most of it is in front of the television. We are trying to break this." The company has seen traction from both retail and institutional buyers since launching in January this year.

"Over the past two-three decades, few companies have made products or services specifically for children. 15% of India's population is below 10 years. Changing lifestyles, where both parents are working, has improved affordability, but the guilt level has also gone up as parents are not able to spend enough time with children and there is a larger audience spending more money," said Saloni Nangia, president, Technopak Advisors, a market research firm.

Similarly, Experifun too has tapped into the educational space. The company designs and develops curriculum-based affordable and exploratory science gadgets and products for grades 6 to 10 to help children from low-income or affordable learning schools learn concepts with objects and exercises in real time.

"Most companies in this sector cater to mid-high end schools that comprise only 3-4% of India's schools. Our objective was to develop something that we can take to smaller cities and schools in electricity-deficient places, where usage will be rough, and teacher's quality or motivation level may not be up to mark," said Rakesh Kumar, co-founder, Experifun. Currently, it sells its products to 80 schools (including six in Manila) across 10 states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Punjab, and Haryana. It's close to signing on another 50 by March end and works on a one-time sales model charging 60,000 per pack containing 80 products.

"We realised that children are taught concepts in classroom in high-end schools. They don't have separate rooms for concept learning and teachers use a chalk and cheese method where students don't get to learn much. Then there is the interest aspect and how children absorb concepts," added Kumar. "There is lot of activity in the space of holistic grooming of children, be it coaching, music or extra curriculum," Nangia said.

Opportunity is not limited to education alone and fashion too has become an emerging opportunity for startups like Delhi-based Kidology launched in 2010, a brand of designer kids wear."There is a paucity of occasion wear in the market. The segment is filled with casual wear and foreign brands because of high repeat value but people don't have an option for clothes for festivals and occasions" said Ankur Mittal, co-founder Kidology.

The company has its own flagship store in Delhi and also sells through 11 fashion boutiques in nine cities. Last year it launched its online site that's witnessing huge traction from non-resident Indians in US, California, Texas, New York, New Jersey, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. It sells 800-1,000 pieces a month with an average price point of Rs 5,000.

"Indian wear does well, as there s a higher shortage of supply in market and mostly NRIs buy this. We get maximum orders from Bengaluru and Chennai, in addition to tier 2 and 3 cities like Raipur, Varanasi, and Darjeeling" Mittal said.

Mapmygenome raises Rs 7 Cr from a clutch of women investors & Google India chief

Men dominate venture capital and angel investment industries, but a handful of women tech entrepreneurs in India are taking steps to change that notion.

Tech entrepreneurs and investors Aarti Grover, Meera Kaul and Sarah Dhar have teamed up with Google India managing director Rajan Anandan and other angel investors to invest about Rs 7 crore in genetic-testing startup Mapmygenome.

The Hyderabad-based startup does gene mapping for Indians to discover their propensity for various illnesses, similar to the service provided Googlebacked DNA analysis company, 23andMe, in the United States. Founded by Anu Acharya, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, Mapmygenome will use the funding to scale up its service, hire talent and for research and development.

"We partnered with several major hospitals and are looking forward to making these tests available through our genetic consultants, who have advanced degrees like PhD in genetics," said Acharya."The funding will help us first scale in India and then Asia," said Acharya, who has also tied up with online retailers Amazon and Snapdeal to provide the service.

Most of her customers come from metros right now but a growing number from smaller towns such as Vijaywada, Coimbatore, Kharagpur and Jalandhar are turning to the startup to test for diseases like cardiovascular-related problems, diabetes, Alzheimer's, schizophrenia and male pattern baldness. "There is a tremendous future for this sector in our country and Mapmygenome is a pioneer in this space," said Aarti Grover, MD at CMS Computers.

Silicon Valley-based investor and entrepreneur Meera Kaul said while her investment was largely based on opportunity analysis, a huge part of the decision was because of the entrepreneur. "I like entrepreneurs that have their skin in the game and Anu (Acharya) is one hell of an investment," said Kaul.

Another investor, Satveer Singh Thakral, chief executive of Singapore Angel Network, is of the view that as India's economy develops, preventive healthcare will form a rising share of the household budget."We are backing this experienced team to scale and make this technology commercially available to people from all walks of life," he said.

Genomic assessment companies can assess even traits such as alcoholism, athletic ability and lactose intolerance as well as specific responses to certain drugs by testing a person's saliva or blood sample using gene-mapping equipment. Next-generation genomics is one of 12 disruptive technologies with potential to deliver economic value of up to $33 trillion a year worldwide by 2025, according to McKinsey Global Institute

Why Everyone From Beethoven, Goethe, Dickens, Darwin To Steve Jobs Took Long Walks and Why You Should Too

One day, when Marc Andreessen, the money man behind such tech giants as Facebook, Twitter, and Zynga, was out driving around his home in Palo Alto, California, he nearly hit a crazy old man crossing the street.

Looking back at the fool he had nearly run over he noticed the trademark blue jeans and black turtle neck. “Oh my god! I almost hit Steve Jobs!” he thought to himself.
It was Jobs that day, out on one of his many walks around the Palo Alto area, where Apple are based. Steve Jobs was famous in the area for his long walks, which he used for exercise, contemplation, problem solving, and even meetings. And Jobs was not alone. Through history the best minds have found that walking, whether a quick five minute jaunt, or a long four hour trek, has helped them compose, write, paint, and create.


Here are five reasons that walking is one of the best ways you can spend your time, and how it can help you think better, get more done, relate better, and live longer.

01. It will help make you more creative

Though most people have always thought that their best ideas came when the were on the move, now there is scientific evidence to back them up. A 2014 study from Stanford University in the US has shown that people are much more creative when they are walking around as opposed to when they are sitting still. Marily Oppezzo and Daniel Schwartz, who both authored the paper, studied 176 college students as they completed certain creative thinking tasks.

In this study, the authors used an experiment known as Guilford’s Alternative Uses Task. As part of this, they participants were asked to list as many alternative uses for a common object as they can. For instance, a knife could be used to spread butter, to cut bread, to stab someone, or to flick peas. The answers were then scored on originality, number of ideas and detail.
In their study, Oppezzo and Schwartz got the students to perform this task in a few different variations. Either sitting indoors or sitting outdoors, or walking on a treadmill indoors, or walking outside.


They found that when people were walking, either on the treadmill or outdoors, they were 60% more creative than when sitting around.

To add to this, 81% of the participants saw an increase in creativity when they were walking.

What’s more, when the participants took a second test after walking, they were still more creative, showing the positive effects of walking continued even after they sat down again.


Though there is no further research into how exactly walking makes you more creative, it is likely that it helps to increase blood flow all around your body, including to the brain to stimulate creativity.
Another interesting finding from the study was that there was no difference between walking on a boring treadmill indoors, and being outside among the birds and the bees. This shows that it is not the environment or sensation that is making walkers more creative, but just the act of walking alone.
It wasn’t all good news for walking in the study though. The researchers also found that if you had to do focused thinking while walking, answering questions that required a single correct answer, the results were no better than when sitting.


This study should give you some evidence if you want to build walking into your daily and business life. A simple walk outside can aid your creative brain if you find yourself stuck at a desk and unable to elicit the next bright spark. Instead of sitting, waiting for inspiration to strike, head outside for five minutes and see if the extra blood flow can get the creative juices flowing.

02. It will help you stay healthy

In a TED talk two years ago, Nilofer Merchant, a business innovator that pounds the same Silicon Valley streets as Andreessen does and Jobs did, advocated the virtues of meetings on the move. She had trouble fitting exercise into an already hectic day so started taking her meetings standing up.

In her TED talk she produced a startling statistic – we are on our butts for almost 10 hours of the day on average.

For many it will be many more as they sit at their desks for the working day and then head home to slump in front of the TV or computer. This is not good for us. Not only are our flabby behinds not built for sitting, but neither are our hearts.
Physical inactivity can lead to heart disease, diabetes, and a large number of cancers. It just doesn’t do us any good to sit around all day. Merchant describes sitting as the new smoking – something which we all do now that is slowly killing us, and that in 10, 20, 50 years time people will look back on as crazy.


In fact, walking is as close to a magic pill that we have. Just 30 minutes of walking each day is enough to dramatically reduce your risk of heart disease, colon cancer, breast cancer and dementia.
Though a good 30 minute walk each day would be best, if you do not have time then you can consider breaking it down into more manageable chunks. 10 minutes in the morning, at noon, and in the evening each will add up and help get your body used to a bit of exercise and like help your heart and brain out as well.

03. It will help you be more productive

If you’ve ever watched the TV show The West Wing you will have heard of the phrase “walk and talk”. In every single episode, the busy staffers of the presidential office were “just too busy, goddammit” to sit around and have meetings, so they would always be discussing, conniving, and gossiping on the move. Though this has become a cliché, something the cast now send up, it’s actually a brilliant idea.


Meetings on the move or walking meetings are very “in vogue” at the moment, particularly in Silicon Valley. The idea being that there is no reason really to hold a meeting over a big piece of wood, so why not take it outside and get some exercise at the same time. Nilofer Merchant says that walking meetings now account for 70% of her exercise during the week, and that they are far more productive than other types of meetings.


For one, there is little distraction. People leave their blackberry’s and smartphones in their pockets when out of a walking meeting, and obviously do not have one eye on their computer screen as can happen when you meet with someone in their office. Plus, you know that you are not going to be disturbed if you are out and about. Of course, this leads to problems for some people.

iPhone Separation Anxiety is real, and people do not like the idea about being away from their desks and electronic contact for any length of time.

Also, people do not know how to act or conduct themselves in such meetings. How do you take notes on the move, for instance? (hint: the same way you do when sitting down – with a pen and paper). Merchant says that, though people can feel awkward about such meetings, they soon see the benefits and are happy to go for walk and talks if you give them a heads up. They then can dress appropriately in sneakers instead of high heels.


Of course, the previously mentioned health and creativity benefits also make walking meetings far better than their sit-down cousins.


If you want to start having your meetings on the move, the best idea is to start with a colleague that also wants to get out and about. Arrange a walking meeting each week where you can discuss work issues together and brainstorm ideas. Then you can reach out to others to gauge interest. As Merchant says, give people warning that you are going mobile and you will probably not have any complaints, and probably a lot more ideas.

04. It’s a great way to communicate

Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg both like first meetings with people to be on the move. This is because a walking conversation is so much more natural and distraction-free than most other types of meetings.


Part of this is because these type of meetings are not so great in that there are more than two people. Though you can get a group of people together for a mass walk and talk, it makes more sense for these meetings to be a one-on-one. The job interview for my first job in science was a walking meeting, as me and my soon-to-be boss walked through the streets of Lausanne, Switzerland discussing where we wanted neuroscience to be in 20 years time.

The naturalness of two people walking along in deep discussion and thought is definitely why these walking meetings are catching on.

You might find that if you are having difficulty communicating an idea to a colleague, then you both heading outside and taking the idea for a few laps around the local park helps immensely.
Again, it is likely that the increased blood flow helps you to come up with not only more creative ideas and solutions to problems, but also helps you express those ideas more fluently and helps you communicate with co-workers.

05. You will be following in the footsteps of giants

Steve Jobs’ penchant for walks was revealed in the recent Walter Isaacson biography of the man and the reason for walking’s recent renaissance within the tech elite, but he was hardly the first creative genius to discover that ideas flourish on the move.


Beethoven was an avid walker, taking short breaks to stretch his legs while working, and then spending his afternoons wandering around Vienna. He always took a pencil and paper with him to write down anything that struck him. You can see, or rather hear, the influence of these woodland walks in his symphonies, particularly his 6^th Symphony, known as his Pastoral Symphony for its country and woodland elements.


Beethoven’s love of walking rubbed off on another genius of the time, Goethe. The composer and the poet meet in the resort town of Teplice on the Czech-German border and went for a walk and talk through the town. Perhaps, though, this is not the best example of a great walking meeting as, though Beethoven originally idolized Goethe, this was very much a case of never meet your idols. The two disliked each other and never met again. Though I hope Goethe continued his walks.
Another of history’s walking enthusiasts was Charles Dickens. Whether in London or at his country house in Kent he always took long walks. And when I say long, I mean long. Dickens could rack up 30 miles a day, or rather night, walking. He would walk whenever the mood took him and whenever he had something to think about, continuing around the streets of London or the country lanes of Kent until the issue was resolved in his head.


This may be a case of the cure is worse than the disease – walking 30 miles each day is unlikely to be very good for you or your joints. If 30 minutes is the minimum you are supposed to walk, then 30 miles is probably nearing the maximum. But it worked for Dickens, as he created some of his most remarkable and memorable characters when out walking, either through thought or through observing the city and people around him.


Another Victorian heavyweight that enjoyed a ramble around Kent was another Charles, Charles Darwin. Darwin had a gravel path installed at his home, not unlike a race track, that he would walk around each day as he thought about problems. The number of laps he did depended on the difficultly of the problem at hand. He would stack stones at the start of his walk and the knock them down one by one as he went round, describing the difficulty of the problem as a three, four, or five-flint problem.

Jobs’ walks around Silicon Valley have led to this being a particularly common trait among young tech leaders.

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, in particular is very fond of a walking meeting. If you are lucky enough to be being considered for a high up position at Facebook, don’t expect to be interviewed by Zuckerberg in his office. No, the man will take you on a tour of the campus, pointing out the different divisions and sounding you out about your experience and thoughts on the company. His piecè de résistance is to finish the walk and talk meeting on a promontory overlooking Silicon Valley and the other tech giants, telling you that he is bigger, better, and richer than all below, in true super-villain style. Presumably you get pushed off if you decline his offer.


Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and now heading up digital finance company Square, takes all new hires at Square for his ‘Gandhi walk’ on their first Friday. This is an epic walk through the streets of San Francisco to the Square offices while he espouses on the guiding principles behind Square.


If you are choosing to spend your afternoons rambling in the woods, or chose to take people out for a wander rather than meet in a stuffy office, you know you are in good company.

Take a walk today!

The conclusion is… walking is great. Not only will it make you more creative, it will help you get those ideas over to your colleagues better and allow you to fit more into your day. All while helping you not to die early. Fantastic.


So, why don’t we do it? Well, sometimes it’s cold outside, or raining, or we are feeling sluggish, or any other of a thousand reasons we have to not get up and out each day.
But if you start with just finding a few extra minutes each day for a walk, or try to move some part of your day, such as meetings outside, then you’ll find that walking is as natural as… walking. You’ll think more, do more, learn more, and live longer. Get walking!