Thank You, Shri Ratan Tata :
[ rntata@tata.com
/ coffice@tata.com / srtt@tatatrust.org ]
What for ?
For recognizing the “ loneliness “ of Senior Citizen and for supporting a solution
Context :
'You don't know what it's like to be
lonely': Ratan Tata invests in sr citizen companionship startup
Extract :
Former Tata Group
chairman Ratan Tata, who has been an active backer of startups, has announced
an investment in startup Goodfellows.
The startup offers
companionship to senior citizens as a service. Goodfellows was founded by Shantanu Naidu [ shantanu@tatatrust.org
]
At the launch of
Goodfellows, Ratan Tata said, “You do not
know what it is like to be lonely until you spend time alone wishing for companionship."
Speaking at the launch,
Ratan Tata said no one cares about getting old until they actually get old.
Addressing
Ratan Tata as a boss, a mentor and also a friend, founder Shantanu Naidu said there are 50 million old people who are living by
themselves and have no one to share their lives with.
Goodfellows [ +91,87795,24307 / contact@goodfellows.in ],
-
hires youngsters who have the skills of empathy and emotional
intelligence to work as the companions of senior citizens. They
are also required to ease their day or help them with any task.
Shantanu Naidu said it
wants to scale up across the country but would prefer to go slow without
compromising on the quality of the
companions it hires
Ratan Tata said he would be delighted for this service to grow and
mature into something which innovatively
changes people’s lives.
From website of Goodfellows :
How do you choose
Goodfellows?
All applicants are vetted for empathy using psychometric tests and background verification checks,
followed by rounds of personal
interviews. We spend a lot of time with the applicants getting to know
their intent, personality and characteristics. This is a stringent process and only the best, most
caring graduates are chosen.
Will someone be checking in on the status?
Yes, besides gaining constant
feedback from you via your Goodfellow, our founder will be in constant touch
with you to ensure you are at ease and happy. You can use these conversations
to provide any feedback you want.
MY TAKE :
Dear Shri Tata,
Given your empathy for the elderly, I urge you to pass
on to Shantanu , my following 6 YEAR old blog / email :
Ø Share
- Your - Soul / Outsourcing Unlimited …………………….[ 24 July 2016 ]
Extract :
I believe , thousands of educated /
unemployed Indians are well placed to render such " Listening "
services to needy persons all around the World , remotely , using Skype /
FaceTime
Here is an outline of my suggestion ,
re how young / educated / unemployed Indians can offer such service :
# VEHICLE
This strictly
" Online " service will have a platform called ,
www...COUCH...com ( supported by a Mobile App )
# USERS
There will be two
kinds of users who will register on this site , viz:
*
" Talkers "
, who want to engage someone who will listen to them / sympathize with them
*
" Listeners " , who will listen patiently /
ask occasional question / offer advice - sympathy - empathy
# REGISTRATION FORM
For both type of users , the
Registration Form will require to submit following details :
* Personal Details ( Name / DOB / Gender /
Nationality / Bank Account No / Photo / Short Video etc )
* Family Details
( Who are members of immediate family ? )
* Contact Details (
Address / Mobile No / Email ID / Skype - FaceTime ID / WatsApp..etc )
* Social Media Footprint ( Facebook / LinkedIn / Twitter : No of
Friends - Contacts - Connections - Followers )
* Cultural Exposure (
Countries visited / lived-in , with stay-periods / Foreign friends )
* Educational Details (
Degrees / Colleges ) . Listeners having degree in Psychology will get ranked
higher !
* Language Details (
Languages spoken / fluently - reasonably well )
* Experience Details (
Where worked / for how long ) . Retired / Worldly Wise , Listeners get ranked
higher !
* Availability Details (
Available from - to / GMT- Local time )
Based on the completeness of the
Registration Form Details , a software will rate and rank the Listeners ,
which will
be visible to the Talkers
There will be facility to update /
edit the data submitted
Upon registration , users will be
assigned USER ID and PASSWORD
In addition , Listener will
be assigned a unique COUCH / INTERVIEW-CABIN number
# SEARCHING DATABASE OF LISTENERS
Talkers will be
able to search the database of the registered Listeners ,
except for their " Contact Details "
Talkers can
, then select / shortlist , a few listeners of their preference
# SERVICE CHARGE
Talkers will pay $
2 per hour to the portal , which will credit this amount to the Bank Account of
the concerned
Listener ,
after deducting 10 % as its own commission
# PAYMENT MECHANISM
Using online
payment gateway , Talkers will
deposit a minimum of $ 20 , on the portal as PRE-PAID amount
As Talker continues
using the service , credit balance will get displayed ( in $ and in
" Hours " terms )
There will be
facility for online ( or through Mobile ) re-charging of the account
# PROCESS
A Listener can
login anytime and occupy his own virtual COUCH / CABIN ( " I am now available for listening " )
As soon as he does
, a GREEN light
will shine on the CABIN , showing the online availability of the concerned
Listener .
This green light will tell the Talkers :
" Welcome ! I am ready to listen "
The light will
turn RED ,
as soon as a Talker walks into Listener's CABIN ( " I am engaged right now " )
Any time a Talker logs
in , he will find if any Listeners ( that he had previously shortlisted ) are
available online
If he finds one ,
he simply CLICKS on the CABIN icon and enters that VIRTUAL cabin !
Simultaneously ,
both the Talker and
the Listener , turn on their Skype ( on Mobile or Tablet )
to start the talk
Remember , Skype ID of neither the Talker , nor the
Listener , is ever visible to each other !
All conversation /
transaction , can ONLY take place through www...COUCH...com ( no bypassing ! )
The entire conversation
will get recorded ( Video + Audio ) and can be downloaded by the Talker (
but not by
the Listener )
, if he so desires
Portal will be obliged
to make this recording available to a Court of Law , in case of any litigation
Portal will carry a
WARNING that it reserves the right to remove any Talker or
a Listener , if it finds that its
service is being misused /
abused ( will need defining , in detail )
# REPUTATION SYSTEM
At the end of each
" talk / conversation " , Talker will be obliged to " Rate " the concerned Listener
on a 5 point scale
( Excellent > Horrible ) .
Cumulative / Average " Rating
" will be prominently
displayed for guidance
of all Talkers .
Of course , a Listener can
see his own rating as soon as
he logs in
At some future date , it
should be possible ( through appropriate software ) , to introduce following
variations in
pricing of the service (
ie ; Hourly Rates ) :
* Surge Pricing (
depending upon the DEMAND of any given Listener ) ie: No of Talkers
waiting for a given
Listener at a given point of time
* Reputation Pricing ,
based on points accumulated by a given Listener from all past ratings
# USAGE HISTORY
For each user
( Listener or Talker ) , there will be a Usage History page of all
the past transactions / talks ; as
also Credit
Balance ( for the Talker )
and the Earnings ( for the Listener )
# PRIVACY
The portal
will NOT reveal
any info / data ( including Audio-Video recording ) of any user to anyone else.
However , portal
will reserve the rights to subject those Audio recordings ( but not Video
recordings ) to
an Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) software ,
which can , over a course of time , come up with a SOFTWARE ROBOT
that can take over
the role of the HUMAN listeners ! If you have any doubts , ask Ray Kurzweil !
When that happens
, this portal may morph into a PPO ( Psychology Process Outsourcing )
!
The portal will
also reserve the rights to use the Audio recordings for offering Voice-to-Voice
language
translation
mobile app for the benefit of world-travelers
# PROMOTING THE SERVICE
To an extent
, the portal may affect the jobs of local Psychologists / Psycho-Analysts who
offer low level
consulting
in any country. They will be in danger of being " Bangalored " ! So ,
it is bound to face resistance
from those
vested / threatened interests !
But foreign
Hospitals / Educational Institutions / NGOs / Medical Colleges , etc could be
targeted for promoting
# BUSINESS MODEL
Business Model
will be in the nature of " Sharing
Economy " , where those owning /
possessing " Idle / Spare /
Under-utilized
" assets / resources , will offer the same to those in need / when in need
, for a price
Eg:
Millions of
private car-owners use their cars for ( may be ) two hours per day . Uber
aggregates this spare
capacity and makes
it available to travelers who do not own ( or wish to own ) their own cars
Both parties
benefit . Economy also benefits by fuller utilization of the spare/surplus
capacities of millions of
assets
All in all , I think this is a great
opportunity for some Indian Start Up to seize
With regards,
Hemen Parekh / hcp@RecruitGuru.com /
18 Aug 2022
No comments:
Post a Comment