The story doesn’t end there. She was requested to join a volunteer force that was being mobilised to help live-alone seniors who needed help. She had a travel beat every day, 10 seniors to be attended to with a nurse and a junior doctor. All pro bono.
Not all seniors are in need of such care. There are many who are perfectly healthy and willing to engage in some kind of productive work. This paper carried an article (3 July 2026) about ‘The Silver Solvers’. In the article I came across an interesting term: Active ageing. We will come to that in a bit.
The narrative around ageing has been changing over the last two decades. In my book ‘Nawabs Nudes Noodles — India Through 50 Years of Advertising’, published in 2016 (Pan Macmillan), I had dedicated a chapter to the Silver Generation, a term that had come into common usage just a decade or two ago. The way they were depicted in advertising had changed, from ‘goli kha ke jeeta hoon’ to ‘holiday pe jaata hoon’.
When I went back to the depiction of the elderly in Indian advertising for the tenth anniversary edition of my book, I discovered that there were many more ways marketers are tapping this Silver Opportunity today. Club Mahindra has launched a ‘Bliss Membership’ which offers a ten-year term aimed at the 50+ or 60+ generation wanting to go on regular holidays. Then there are products like adult diapers that used to be taboo till a decade ago, but are now being actively promoted.
Senior living facilities are coming up in almost all the big cities of India, with Pune and Coimbatore having taken an early lead. The senior care market is also getting further segmented with the emergence of assisted living as a service, with companies like Athulya Senior Care expanding their network.
What about those elders, who may be recent retirees, and quite agile in their thinking? Can they be seen as an opportunity by certain sectors? Companies like Wisdom Circle are building a network of domain experts who provide fractional CXO support: Fractional CMO, Fractional CFO, Fractional CHRO etc. I thought the term ‘active ageing’ fitted this endeavour well.
The Business Standard article spoke about how Japan had tapped the ‘active ageing’ cohort to create a whole slew of ‘silver industries’ in a diverse set of domains including elder care, assisted living, home healthcare, elder nutrition, grooming etc.
Kerala already has a 60+ cohort that makes up 20.7 per cent of the total population of the state (one in five); Tamil Nadu is close behind at 16.3 per cent. States like UP and Bihar are the laggards in this regard with 10.3 per cent and 11.5 per cent. Some state governments are worried but, whatever may be government influences, as an article in The Economist (June 6, 2026) argued: “Fertility seems to be driven by forces too powerful for states or religious leaders to control very easily. … India’s fertility has been declining for 70 years. The odds of a sudden reversal are slim”.
Just as we spoke about the population bomb that got transmogrified to be called the demographic dividend, it is possible that the ageing challenge, too, could get transformed into a second demographic dividend — as was observed in this paper.
The second demographic dividend will happen only if many players get actively involved to ensure that more and more seniors embrace the ‘active ageing’ agenda. Becoming a fractional CXO is one route. Becoming an honorary faculty at a college or school is yet another option. Taking an active role in a nongovernment organisation or a Rotary Club is yet another way to actively age.
Ageing poses many challenges and they are self-evident. Ageing also offers opportunities for companies that can create products and services for seniors. For instance Saregama Caravaan — digital audio players with vintage music — is a runaway success, thanks to its terrific targeting. There are many more ideas to be explored like ‘Bliss Membership’ of Club Mahindra.
What now needs the attention of companies (and policymakers) is the opportunity offered by elders and the way to tap the active ageing mindset. If 60-year-olds can become a volunteer army to help the 80+, or volunteer in schools to lend a helping hand to overworked teachers, we may actually be able to turn a silver lining into a silver mine.
The writer is an author, independent brand strategist and founder of brand-building.com. His latest book is ‘Nawabs Nudes Noodles — India through 60 Years of advertising’. He can be reached at ambimgp@brand-building.com
 "economic growth, Eldercare, Seniors citizens")