Zerodha employees now have an incentive to lose weight

Zerodha boss Nithin Kamath invited other companies to participate in the BMI challenge for what is a ‘healthy competition’. (Image credit: @Nithin0dha/Twitter)

All employees of financial services company Zerodha have been promised half a month’s salary as bonus, but there is a catch. CEO Nithin Kamath on Thursday said measuring a person’s body mass index (BMI) is the easiest way to get started on the health and fitness journey.

Employees with a BMI of less than 25 will get half a month's salary as bonus, Kamath said on LinkedIn and Twitter. Not just that, by August, if an employee manages to bring her or his BMI under 24, they will get another half month’s pay as bonus, he said, marking World Health Day.

“The average BMI of our team is 25.3 and if we can get to

“The lowest average BMI or the largest change in average BMI wins. The winner chooses a charity everyone else contributes to. Maybe a health tech company can run the initiative.”

The lowest average BMI or the largest change in average BMI wins. The winner chooses a charity everyone else contributes to. Maybe a health tech company can run the initiative.

If you want to do this at your company, do post in the comments.

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Happy world health day! 2/3

— Nithin Kamath (@Nithin0dha) April 7, 2022

Kamath invited other companies to participate in the challenge for what is a ‘healthy competition’.

“I know BMI isn’t the best measure to track health and fitness, but it is the easiest way to get started. With health and most other things in life, the most important bit is to get started,” he said, adding that walking 10,000 steps daily is a great start for anyone wanting to stay healthy.

Nithin Kamath and his older brother Nikhil Kamath, co-founders of Zerodha- India’s largest equity brokerage house- were ranked 86th on the Forbes list of India’s richest in 2021. The Kamath brothers founded Zerodha in 2010.