The demand for Senior Living Apartments in India will grow massively as the “Young Population” ages, all together. With growing nuclear families. With growing affluence. With growing tendency of both husband & wife working full time. And with growing needs of ‘convenience’, even working couples (and singles) are taking to living in (far flung) such ‘serviced’ apartments even though they’re marketed as ‘Senior Living’ islands.
All of this, the trend, is an economic given. No point in debeating that!
With Digital India gaining momentum, with work from home gaining ground, the importance of those ‘little things‘ gains importance in selecting a ‘Senior Living Serviced Complex’ to put down roots to.
One of those ‘little things’ is the availability of uninterruptible power and internet connectivity. Especially in those developments that claim to be ‘upper end’ posh offerings.
The power supply is basically by State Electricity Boards & Corporations. And we know how poorly they’re run and maintained. Even the generating stations are slowly and surely crumbling or malfunctioning due to age and supply side disruptions. Just today, it even made headlines belying the Government’s claims of ‘surplus’ power.
These posh ‘serviced’ apartments can’t fight the Government. So they install massive generator sets. The switch over takes 1-2 minutes as they’re mostly manually done (to save costs!). These builders are no different from the run-of-the-mill builders of sky high apartment blocks with fancy names. They’re run or at least controlled by bean counters as their only motive is profit, undercover of sweet talking hospitality.
In this brief interegnum (1-2 mins) the numerous gadgets everyone uses reset and both work and entertainment are disruppted by the irritating need to reset to their previous state. Most ‘Seniors’ are clueless of why this happens even when “we have generators”! And builders pass the buck to governments and other service providers.
The younger lot that works from home are disgusted at the loss of work thanks to this 1-2 minute power disruption.
Now the question arises: Is the TV/Broadband service provider responsible or should the posh serviced apartment provide a single (a measly Rs 30K approx) UPS for this vital power circuit which powers up the digital services to all apartments?
That’s a fight that always results in a stalemate. And the high paying inmates suffer. Since they’re ‘locked in’ by these high end senior living offerings, they (the Builders) take a ‘who cares‘ attitude. Easily justified by the bean counters who run these places.
Like the builders are now compelled to install separate systems for sewage disposal and recycling of waste water by law, it would override the penchant of the builders to save a measly 30K and upgrade the experience of their high end clients! Most of the 5 star *hotels* do this but not the 5 star *serviced* apartments.
This is the failure of ‘Digital India’ – at the very last mile (or yards).
I solved my apartment’s problem by installing my own mini-UPS at the booster-pod where my TV Service Provider boosts its signals… and in the bargain, a few other Apartments which are also connected to the pod benefit too. Paisa Vasool.
All it costs is a mere ~ 4-5K but keeps my blood pressure down & peace of mind up! Like, for example, now as I write my blog. The power switched twice during this time. God knows how many times it switched when I was watching the India-Pakistan Asia Cup match!
What is the value of your peace of mind? Ask specifically for this ‘little thing’ before you book or buy a serviced apt – especially in the ‘posh’ ones that cost a bomb to buy and even more in maintenance!
Consumer pressure and stiff competition will result in such ‘little things’ get taken care of. That’s always the best tonic!
Watch this space😀
@jsvasan
05-Sept-2023