Hello all,
I am planning to start a company in Chennai in another 6-8 months timeframe after I return to India. One thing I feel which is an issue are the elderly parents of Brahmans working out of TN or India who are not getting enough support. The children have a bright future abroad and yet are anxious about parents. The company can be structured as a trust with the following operations:
a. Establish a head office in Chennai, with branches in Tiruchirapalli, Madurai and Bengaluru within the first 2 years. Thoroughly networked using VOIP and broadband with a portal web page protected by a username/password.
b. Provide a facility on the portal for each son/daughter to register their Brahman parents living in or near these cities with all contact details including relatives and friends, neighbors and their phone numbers, addresses, and medical details. These details will be known only to the user and a couple of trusted people in the company.
c. The company will check up on each elderly parent by visiting each of them at least twice a week and calling them a couple of times a day to see if they need anything including assistance with shopping, visits to temples or functions in the city, computer assistance with email, Skype video conferencing, and bill payment for utilities like phones, cable, electricity etc.
d. The company will arrange informational seminars and religious discourses and will provide to and fro transportation to major events happening in each city on a monthly basis. This will allow people to meet other parents and discuss issues of common interests and develop more awareness.
e. The company will be a reliable and trustworthy point of contact in the case of any emergency or problem. The office will be open 24 hours a day, and will have at least some persons with a security background (retired army personnel), a law background and a medical background. All employees will undergo a rigorous background check and will be randomly monitored and disciplined or dismissed if any violations occur. They can provide accompaniment to hospitals and verify if proper treatment is being administered. Also, they can help with visa and insurance arrangements and airport pick/up dropoff and customs if the parents go abroad for visits.
f. If any repairs or house work is to be performed, the company will negotiate and monitor contractors at work. The company can also provide trusted plumbers, electricians, gardeners, housemaids, vegetarian cooks, nurses etc on demand.
In short, the company will take care of most of the hassles of everyday life because of poor infrastructure and dishonest people everywhere in India. And also provide a support network, and a gathering place for parents, allowing them to live at home in peace knowing that they just have to pick up the phone to get trustworthy help. A community center will allow parents to volunteer to teach poor Brahman children in the city on Sundays, or help them with arts and music and other traditions. It will also make the parents feel they are contributing to passing on their traditions, and give them a sense of self-worth.
If a parent were to fall very sick or have an accident, daily monitoring will be done with status updates on the web portal with names and phone number of doctors, the hospital, their qualifications, the prescriptions they write and such to keep them honest. Emergency cash will be disbursed by the company for such purposes. Or if the parent were to get into a dispute over a bill, or with a contractor or with an item under warranty, the company will act to defend their interests. All activities performed by the company employees will be logged under each user on the portal along with updated photos, and details like scanned bills, prescriptions etc.
Costwise I think something like this can be setup for a base fee of $50/month which should take care of maintaining the web portal, community center, and operating costs. Actual costs incurred for any personal assistance or transportation etc can be billed at the rate of $10/hour. So the total monthly cost could range from $100/month for a healthy parents to $500-600/month for parents requiring daily monitoring. Wonder if something like this would be of interest to the wider community. It would require at least 1000 clients to break even.
I am planning to start a company in Chennai in another 6-8 months timeframe after I return to India. One thing I feel which is an issue are the elderly parents of Brahmans working out of TN or India who are not getting enough support. The children have a bright future abroad and yet are anxious about parents. The company can be structured as a trust with the following operations:
a. Establish a head office in Chennai, with branches in Tiruchirapalli, Madurai and Bengaluru within the first 2 years. Thoroughly networked using VOIP and broadband with a portal web page protected by a username/password.
b. Provide a facility on the portal for each son/daughter to register their Brahman parents living in or near these cities with all contact details including relatives and friends, neighbors and their phone numbers, addresses, and medical details. These details will be known only to the user and a couple of trusted people in the company.
c. The company will check up on each elderly parent by visiting each of them at least twice a week and calling them a couple of times a day to see if they need anything including assistance with shopping, visits to temples or functions in the city, computer assistance with email, Skype video conferencing, and bill payment for utilities like phones, cable, electricity etc.
d. The company will arrange informational seminars and religious discourses and will provide to and fro transportation to major events happening in each city on a monthly basis. This will allow people to meet other parents and discuss issues of common interests and develop more awareness.
e. The company will be a reliable and trustworthy point of contact in the case of any emergency or problem. The office will be open 24 hours a day, and will have at least some persons with a security background (retired army personnel), a law background and a medical background. All employees will undergo a rigorous background check and will be randomly monitored and disciplined or dismissed if any violations occur. They can provide accompaniment to hospitals and verify if proper treatment is being administered. Also, they can help with visa and insurance arrangements and airport pick/up dropoff and customs if the parents go abroad for visits.
f. If any repairs or house work is to be performed, the company will negotiate and monitor contractors at work. The company can also provide trusted plumbers, electricians, gardeners, housemaids, vegetarian cooks, nurses etc on demand.
In short, the company will take care of most of the hassles of everyday life because of poor infrastructure and dishonest people everywhere in India. And also provide a support network, and a gathering place for parents, allowing them to live at home in peace knowing that they just have to pick up the phone to get trustworthy help. A community center will allow parents to volunteer to teach poor Brahman children in the city on Sundays, or help them with arts and music and other traditions. It will also make the parents feel they are contributing to passing on their traditions, and give them a sense of self-worth.
If a parent were to fall very sick or have an accident, daily monitoring will be done with status updates on the web portal with names and phone number of doctors, the hospital, their qualifications, the prescriptions they write and such to keep them honest. Emergency cash will be disbursed by the company for such purposes. Or if the parent were to get into a dispute over a bill, or with a contractor or with an item under warranty, the company will act to defend their interests. All activities performed by the company employees will be logged under each user on the portal along with updated photos, and details like scanned bills, prescriptions etc.
Costwise I think something like this can be setup for a base fee of $50/month which should take care of maintaining the web portal, community center, and operating costs. Actual costs incurred for any personal assistance or transportation etc can be billed at the rate of $10/hour. So the total monthly cost could range from $100/month for a healthy parents to $500-600/month for parents requiring daily monitoring. Wonder if something like this would be of interest to the wider community. It would require at least 1000 clients to break even.
