Catch ’em young -- a mantra aimed at moulding talent, is being given a new meaning by Alex K Babu, Managing Director of Kochi-based stock broking firm Hedge. He is using the strategy to woo school children into the world of equities through financial literacy drives.

Alex Babu is worried about the declining trend in savings in the country, especially among the youth drawing hefty salaries. According to him, the savings rate in India has slid to 27 per cent from 38 per cent and Kerala is no exception. Worse, the State’s exposure to the share market hovers at a paltry 1-2 per cent. There is a need to inculcate the savings habit right from the school level and children in the age group of 8-12 will be the right target to begin with, he observed.

“We are trying to redefine the concept of traditional Piggy Bank to Bull Bank where small savings and investments can be diverted to the stock markets,” Babu said. To encourage the saving habits, he said, Hedge plans to distribute 50,000 Bull Banks from the next academic year among school children in the State. The company will procure these from China as well as the domestic market.

Despite the company undertaking this exercise at the school level, he said, law does not permit minors to open demat accounts. So, investing students can open demat accounts in the name(s) if their parents, with the minor being the nominee.

Besides school-going children, the company has chalked out specific programmes for teenagers and B-School students as well through a board game — Toro e Orso (Bull n Bear) with the sole objective of creating a new segment of investors over the next 10 years.

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