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Wednesday, August 31, 2011 11:01 AM]
The interim regulator Pension Fund Regulatory Development Authority (PFRDA) is planning to involve LIC agents to sell its New Pension Scheme Lite (NPS Lite). LIC has an army of about 14 lakh agents.
National Pension System (NPS) is a scheme of PFRDA, the apex body founded by Indian Government to develop and regulate the pension sector in India. With effect from 1st May 2009, NPS has been extended to all citizens of India.
NPS-Lite is planned for economically weaker sections of the society and borderline investors in order to make small investments viable. It aims to rein in the Government operated schemes, NGOs, NBFCs, MFIs etc. in serving the old age savings needs of low-income workers.
Till date, NPS has 23.56 lakh subscribers and a total principal of Rs. 9924.72 crore and NPS Lite have 7.43 lakh subscribers. To engage the services of LIC agents, PFRDA needs the IRDA’s permission.
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Tuesday, August 30, 2011 1:23 PM]
The death of a key person in any establishment may generate turmoil among investors and clients. There are many companies that depend heavily on certain people. This is commonly seen in small establishments, but even big companies are also inclined to depend heavily on only certain people.
These people are called ‘Key man’ meaning a person who is an employee in an organization at an important post whose demise would lead to financial loss to the organization. In such events, 'key man insurance policy' comes in useful.
In India, key man insurance is presently an employer-employee policy, where the premium on such policies have to be paid by the employer and is the nominee and collects the amount in case of the employee's death.
Presently, such policies are more popular among small private companies rather than large organizations. Many private companies insure their CEOs and directors.
SBI Life Insurance, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and LIC are the key players in this segment in India.
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Monday, August 29, 2011 12:01 PM]
The Indian Government is planning to rope in India’s biggest insuring company, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), to fund infrastructure projects for ports, roads and highways.
LIC is likely to partner with India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd. (IIFCL) to buy out long-term commercial banks’ loan portfolios. The government is planning to spend over one trillion dollars in twelfth Five-Year Plan (2012-17) on making new infrastructure and updating the existing infrastructure.
The program to bring in LIC for infrastructure financing was discussed in a meeting convoked by the finance ministry which was also attended by the heads of IIFCL and LIC.
The purported undertaking will permit LIC and IIFCL to buy out forty percent of any bank's loan with each taking a responsibility of twenty percent. The IRDA guidelines require life insuring companies to invest at least fifteen percent of their funds in social and infrastructure sectors.
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Sunday, August 28, 2011 11:11 AM]
Health insurance in India is the second largest sector in the non life vertical of the insurance industry. Health insurance has increased its presence in the last two fiscal years and is expected to achieve new heights in the next few years.
Due to increasing awareness about healthcare and rising healthcare costs in India, health insurance sector is expected to grow 28-30 percent during next four years.
Health insurance market in India is dominated by four public sector insuring companies- National Insurance Co. Ltd., Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd., New India Assurance Co. Ltd. and United India Insurance Co. Ltd having major presence in rural areas.
The private health insuring companies are also more and more infiltrating the rural segment with the hope of outperforming the public sector companies in coming years.
Though the Indian health insurance sector has been expanding rapidly during last few years, it continues to remain predominately unexplored due to several defects such as low awareness, inefficient cost management, poor distribution model, to name a few.
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Saturday, August 27, 2011 12:26 PM]
In May 2010, Air India Express flight from Dubai to Mangalore crashed while landing and 158 of the 166 on board died in the crash. Almost fifteen months later only forty percent of the passengers have received full settlement. There is a legal fight going on between Air India and victims’ families about higher compensation according to the Montreal Convention which is argued intensely by the airline.
While the Air India has received its insurance claim of 50 million dollars, insurance firm has yet to give compensation to all the victims.
Among the passengers were also four cabin crew of which none survived. Their families have still to receive final compensation and their families are alleging that Air India is treating them as workmen and applying the law meant for ground staff in a fatal crash.
The crews’ families are alleging that the law firm engaged by national carrier has been bargaining with them over the compensation amount. AI is being offering Rs. 35 lakh against Rs. 75 lakh according to the Montreal Convention.
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Friday, August 26, 2011 11:20 AM]
Haryana government is going to implement National Agricultural Insurance Scheme (NAIS) during this Kharif 2011 season. The state government has decided to bring down the size of the insurance unit under this scheme from the thus far existent blocks.
This policy will benefit farmers in the event of disease outbreak, natural calamities and pest outbreak.
During this season Bajra Crop of Fatehabad, Hissar, Sirsa, Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Rohtak, Sonepat, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Mewat, Kaithal, Palwal, Jind, Riwari and Mohindergarh districts, cotton crop of Hissar, Sirsa, Fatehabad, Bhiwani, Kaithal, Rohtak, Jind, Riwari and Mohindergarh districts, Maize crop of Panchkula and Ambala districts and Arhar Crop of Jhajjar, Sonepat, Bhiwani, Rohtak, Jind and Mewat Districts are included.
National Agricultural Insurance Scheme also known as Rashtriya Krishi Bima Yojana (RKBY) was started with the objectives of providing financial support and insurance cover to the farmers in the case of failure of any of the listed crops as a result of pests, diseases and natural calamities. To support farmers in adopting higher technology, progressive farming practices and high value in-puts in Agriculture. The scheme help stabilizes farm incomes, especially in calamity years.
The crops covered under National Agricultural Insurance Scheme are Food crops, Oilseeds, Sugarcane, Potato and Cotton.
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Thursday, August 25, 2011 12:00 PM]
Some time back Pakistani Dr. Asher Hasan formulated an insurance model in which people from the low socioeconomic background can get good-quality healthcare at heavily subsidized rates. Dr. Hasan roped in large business houses, non-governmental organizations and educational institutions to provide group insurances for their low-income workers, such as peons, office boys and drivers so that they can also have same quality of healthcare as their employers.
In year 2007, Dr. Asher Hasan in a survey found that the flourishing private health care systems in urban India and Pakistan were not accessible to the majority of low-income people. This prompted him to think of something, and he came up with this model.
Dr. Hasan founded a NGO ‘Naya Jeevan’, which provides subsidized health insurance to economically weak individuals in Pakistan. The NGO has affiliations with eighty corporations.
Hasan is hoping to launch an insurance model based on ‘Naya Jeevan’ model in India soon.
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Wednesday, August 24, 2011 11:37 AM]
LIC is in the process of bringing a new single premium policy after a break of two and a half years. Keeping in view volatile markets and judging market sentiments, LIC is ready to launch its best-selling insurance product in the form of a single premium policy.
Almost two and half years back, LIC launched a single premium policy “Jeevan Astha”. Investors responded eagerly to Jeevan Astha. In fiscal year 2009, around 1.8 million policies were sold amounting to Rs. 10,235 crore in just forty-five days.
LIC is now waiting to get the permission from IRDA and is aiming to launch it in the first week of September.
The product is expected to give a fixed return of 7% - 8% per year with insurance cover also. The policy also offers tax exemption and has a tenure choice of 5-10 year.
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Tuesday, August 23, 2011 11:07 AM]
India’s national carrier-Air India will have to pay 15% more for renewing of its insurance policy, which is coming up for renewal on 1st October. This will amount to Rs. 160 crore, 24 crore more than last year. It would be the highest premium paid by any airline fleet in India.
Despite no claims made by air India during 2010-2011 and having the same fleet size, insuring companies are asking for more due to the AI's functional inefficiencies. In 2010-11, the Mangalore air-crash in which 158 passengers were killed also played a key role in the increase in premiums.
Air India paid an insurance premium of Rs. 136 crore during 2010-11 for insuring its aircraft fleet, whose total value is estimated at 9.1 billion dollars. ICICI Lombard General was the major insuring company and the rest of 40% of the premium was shared by four public sector general insuring companies.
Air India is now losing appeal among insurance companies. Previous year, all major private insuring companies and public sector insurers entered in the Air India tender. This year there were only two bidders, existing insurer, ICICI Lombard and a syndicate of public sector insurers.
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Monday, August 22, 2011 11:01 AM]
UP’s Department of Medical and Health has decided to hire an independent agency to monitor Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana As compared to other states, Uttar Pradesh is one of the lowest performing states in implementing the RSBY. This decision was taken to improve the implementation of RSBY in the state.
RSBY was earlier handled by the Department of Rural Development, but now Health Department has taken over the implementation of the RSBY.
In a meeting held on Saturday with central government officials, the state decided to employ an independent agency to supervise RSBY. Department of Health will also nominate a regular officer to address the insurance scheme in each district of the state.
The state has also asked the three insurance companies, ICICI Lombard, United India Insurance and Oriental Insurance to appoint an officer in each of their nominated districts.
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Sunday, August 21, 2011 10:58 AM]
Soon, you can buy insurance from your local post office. The 1.55 lakh post offices across India are being modernized and will soon become useful outlets providing facilities like insurance and banking.
Sachin Pilot, Union Minister of state for Communications and Information Technology told reporters in Srinagar, "We are applying to the Reserve Bank of India for a license to start banking facilities at all the post offices across the country." Pilot also said that all post offices will also provide other facilities like insurance.
"These facilities at the post office will largely benefit rural population of the country which does not have easy access to them compared to urban residents," he said.
IRDA has granted permission to post offices to distribute insurance products in October last year. Each circle of the Department of Post (DOP) will act as a corporate agent of insurers.
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Saturday, August 20, 2011 10:56 AM]
Credit history provider Credit Information Bureau (India) Ltd (CIBIL) has now decided to target insurance and telecom sectors to provide data.
CIBIL’s MD, Arun Thukral said, “We have decided to focus on insurance and telecom sectors for growing our membership base. A life insurance company can decide the value of insurance coverage based on the data available with us about an individual.”
At present, CIBIL has over 600 members, including Credit-card companies, banks, housing finance companies and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) which use CIBIL’s services.
CIBIL was incorporated in the year 2000 with an aim to fulfil the demand of credit granting institutions for complete credit information by gathering, comparing and circulating credit information relating to both consumer and commercial borrowers to its Members.
CIBIL’s data sharing is founded on the ‘Principle of Reciprocity’, meaning that only members who have rendered all their credit data, may access credit information reports from CIBIL.
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Friday, August 19, 2011 11:00 AM]
Max Bupa Health Insurance, one of the leading private insuring companies in India, released Bupa Health Pulse 2011 international survey, highlighting people's perceptions and attitudes on diseases. The survey study claims that 40% Indians are unhealthy and one individual out of every ten is obese.
57% of those surveyed responded that they spend maximum two hours on exercise in a week. 61% gave the excuse that their work pressure keeps them from exercising.
About 20% Indians are of view that their work commitment is the biggest roadblock in making their lifestyle healthier decisions. 76% agree that if they have a goal, then the exercise is more motivating.
The study also found that the 25 to 35 age group looses the most productivity because of illness as compared to other age groups.
83% Indians in the 45 to 54 age group regard themselves to be more healthy as compared to 72% in the age group 35-44.
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Thursday, August 18, 2011 11:25 AM]
Insurance Regulatory Authority of India (IRDA) has selected IT services provider, Mahindra Satyam to develop and implement an IT system for monitoring surveyors.
Mahindra Satyam will be implementing agency for the development and implementation of Integrated Surveyor Licence Management System (ISLMS).
The decision was taken after a detailed scrutiny of the proposals presented by the various IT companies. The shortlisted companies were CMC, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), NIIT Technology, NSE IT, L&T Infotech and R Systems.
The project’s aim will be to have an efficient license creation, monitoring and renewal mechanism. IRDA’s aim to implement ISLMS is to provide facilities to surveyors to register online and check their license e and renewal status.
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Wednesday, August 17, 2011 11:39 AM]
Birla Sun Life Insurance Company, one of India's leading private life insurance companies has decided to keep hotshot cricketer Yuvraj Singh as its brand ambassador for the next two years. Birla Sun Life is confident that the company will continue to gain from the tie-up Yuvraj Singh.
Remarking on the occasion, Yuvraj Singh, brand ambassador for Birla Sun Life Insurance said "Having been through the highs and lows in my cricketing career, I strongly believe that good and bad phases are a part of every individuals life. And, it is only in our interest to follow a disciplined approach towards planning a secure future. Am hoping that through my continued partnership with Birla Sun Life Insurance, I will be able to help spread this message across to many more individuals and help make a difference in their life".
CMO (Financial Services) of Aditya Birla Group, Mr. Ajay Kakar added, "The game of Cricket has a strong emotional connect and rules the heart of every single Indian consumer.
Millions of cricket fans in India closely follow cricketers and their lives. Like any other individual, a cricketer's life too is governed by periodic highs and lows. Yuvraj Singh, who has been our brand ambassador for the last two years, has been through rewarding as well as testing times in his recent past and resonates the brand philosophy of 'Jab Tak Balla Chalta Hain, Thaat Chalte Hai Warna.' As a brand, we encourage our customers to plan systematically in order to protect their future and Yuvraj Singh will continue to partner us in this journey".
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Tuesday, August 16, 2011 12:24 PM]
IAG (Insurance Australia Group Limited) has announced its plan to purchase a 20 percent stake in China’s Bohai Property Insurance Pty Ltd (Bohai Insurance), for a price of approximately 100 million Australian dollars. This strategical stake in Bohai Property Insurance will allow IAG to put its representative on the Bohai Insurance's board and a deputy general manager.
The transaction will take place subject to regulatory approval and is anticipated to be finished by the end 2012. AG is into general insurance in Australia, New Zealand, and a developing presence in Asia, in Malaysia, India and Thailand.
In a statement, IAG chief executive Mike Wilkins said, "Bohai Insurance is an attractive partner and provides an exciting opportunity for us to meet our long-held ambition of entering China's general insurance market."
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Monday, August 15, 2011 12:23 PM]
Hero Cycles, the world's largest bicycle manufacturer announced on Independence Day, its plan to provide health insurance to its rural customers as part of the company’s social initiative to support the poor.
Hero Cycles has partnered with Sonata Finance, an Allahabad-based finance company for financing the bicycles. The company will provide loans of Rs. 100 per week in rural areas and is considering paying premium for health insurance for the poor customers on purchase every bicycle.
Hero Cycles is presently in talk with one private sector and one public sector health insurer for tie up. The health insurance services will be started from next month onwards.
Hero Cycles Managing Director Pankaj Munjal said, "Hero Cycles want to contribute with its limited strength by giving them a sense of security. These people will be given health insurance policies when they come to buy our bicycles."
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Sunday, August 14, 2011 12:22 PM]
The Indian general insurance with a combined turnover of about Rs. 42,000 crore, posted a loss of approximately Rs. 10,000 crore in the fiscal year 2010-11 and the future path to profitability appears not to be easy. The future challenges for the insurers are tremendous.
Chairman and MD of United India Insurance, G Srinivasan said, “ Over the years, the general insurance industry may be making underwriting losses but the companies have huge investment income by which they have been able to cover up those losses and have been able to show reasonably sound balance sheet over the years.”
“The situation will no longer continue because the quanta of losses are increasing. In 2009-10, the general insurance industry had made an underwriting loss of Rs 5900 crore, whereas in 2010-11 the estimates is that the industry would cross Rs 10000 crore underwriting losses. The general industry may have to record net losses in 2010-11,’’ he said.
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Saturday, August 13, 2011 12:21 PM]
Amitabh’s latest release “Aarakshan” will have to run in the cinemas without any insurance cover as not a single insurance company has come forward to provide insurance cover. It is no wonder that with so much controversy and the debate the film has generated, it would have been a real surprise had it managed to get insurant cover.
Generally, the film distributors purchase “Loss of Profit insurance policy” in case there is any trouble in the screening of a film. Nevertheless, as the film Aarakshan generated so much controversy due to the kind of debatable topic it deals in; all insurers have declined to provide insurance cover for the movie.
The film was banned by the courts from releasing in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab. The insurance companies’ explanation is that they can’t cover the losses endured due to political disruptions.
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Friday, August 12, 2011 10:50 AM]
India is built on the foundation of relationships. Relationships are an integral part of our culture. Keeping this in mind, Future Generali India has launched a new campaign by the name of ‘Ab Nibhao Rishtedari’ with an aim to attract potential agents to Future Generali family of insurance consultants.
The logic behind the campaign is this; an insurance consultant touch the lives of thousands of people and ultimately, he becomes a member of their family on whom the family has full faith. Future Generali’s campaign will emphasize how a Future Generali agent builds up new relations and develops into a significant part of their daily life.
Becoming an insurance agent is not an attractive carrier choice among the new generation and one of the biggest challenges facing insurers is to recruit agents. The new campaign will demonstrate agents as human relationship builders.
The campaign will show the benefits of becoming a Future Generali (FG) agent and reasons to trust and buy from an FG agent. There are two radio commercials and two TV commercials as part of Future Generali’s ‘Ab Nibhao rishtedari’ campaign.
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Thursday, August 11, 2011 10:56 AM]
Children are becoming the new point of business focus for India’s insuring industry. All insuring companies are creating customized insurance products keeping children in view. All of them are spending money, time and energy on creating interactive ads to attract them.
There are many ad campaigns running focussing on “the child space” as insuring companies view this as the newest point of connect with their clients.
Aviva Life is showing Sachin Tendulkar as the parent in its latest advertising campaign. Max New York Life is producing interactive programs on social media for parents for blogging, tweeting and chatting. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance is organizing contests for father-child where they can take part and win prizes.
In a survey, it was found that 69% policy holders had purchased insurance to meet the educational demands of their children.
Child Plans have become important earners and are making a significant contribution to all companies' coffers.
As two-thirds of India's population is less than 35 years of age, ‘child plans’ are the next big opportunity for insuring companies.
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Wednesday, August 10, 2011 10:20 AM]
Public sector commercial bank, Central Bank of India on Tuesday announced its partnership with Private sector general insurer Cholamandalam MS to market insurance products from its branches all over India.
Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Company Ltd. is a Joint Venture between Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group of Japan and Murugappa Group of India. Central Bank of India is one of the leading Public Sector commercial Banks in India. It has 3728 branches all across the country.
Insurance products will be customized according to bank customer’s need. The products will be marketed through its branches spread across urban, semi-urban, metro and rural bank branches. The bank will also take initiatives like customer outreach programs, health camps and tele-marketing to enhance this tie-up.
Speaking about the partnership, M.D of Chola MS, S. S. Gopalarathnam said, “We will use our vast experience in financial inclusion schemes like RSBY, expertise in other Bancassurance partnerships and meet Central Bank’s expectations in terms of products and customer service enabled by technology and empathy embedded in our business philosophy.”
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Tuesday, August 9, 2011 11:04 AM]
United India Insurance has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Vijaya Bank to sell its general insurance products. Few months back, the bank also signed a similar MoU with LIC of India.
Chairman and MD of Vijaya Bank, HS Upendra Kamath said that with a customer base of more than 8 million, a loan book of Rs. 51,000 crore and with 1,200 core banking solution (CBS)-networked branches all over India, there is an enormous reach for insurance business for the bank in-house, in both general and life insurance sector.
Since its partnership with LIC, Vijaya Bank has sold more than 3,717 LIC policies and gathered a premium of Rs. 12 crore.
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Monday, August 8, 2011 1:19 PM]
Deven Sharma, an Indian by birth is one of the key people at the centre of affairs surrounding the historical demotion of the United States of America's creditworthiness. Deven Sharma is the president of Standard and Poor’s (S&P’s), the credit agency that downgraded the US long-term sovereign credit rating from the top 'AAA' level for the first time in financial history.
When the US administration reacted angrily to the S&P’s rating, Sharma defended S&P's move and said US’s reaction was normal.
Deven Sharma joined Standard and Poor’s in 2006 as Ex. VP (Investment Services and Global Sales) and was appointed President in year 2007. He is also chairman of S&P's Indian subsidiary CRISIL. Before that, he was Executive Vice-President (Global Strategy) for five years at The McGraw-Hill Companies. Sharma has experience in global corporations in the Europe, US, Latin America and Asia.
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Sunday, August 7, 2011 1:16 PM]
Life insuring companies marketing pension plans will now have to give a minimum assured benefit, either in the form of a guaranteed minimum maturity amount to be paid at the end of the accumulation phase or in the form of a minimum guaranteed return on the premium paid by policyholders during the accumulation phase, or as a guaranteed annuity from the starting date of the policy.
Earlier, IRDA had instructed the insurers to ensure a guaranteed return on investment, at 0.5% point over the reverse repo rate of the Reserve Bank of India.
IRDA, in an exposure draft issued on 1st August, proposed two very significant changes in pension plans. The first is that all insuring companies will now have to guarantee a minimum benefit at the time of selling a pension policy instead of previous minimum 4.5% return. The second change is that policy-holders will have to purchase pension income or annuity from the same insurer from which they purchased the pension plan in the beginning.
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Saturday, August 6, 2011 1:13 PM]
The Country’s four public sector insurers on Saturday launched a Common Mechanism for Compromise Settlement of Motor Third Party Claims (CMCSTPC) Centre in Kochi. There is a plan to launch fifty such more centres all over the country to cut down pending motor accident cases and ascertain rapid claim settlements.
Kerala High Court judge, Justice Ramachandran Nair inaugurated the Kochi centre.
This is the second centre in India. The first centre was launched in Cuttack in March 2011. About 200 cases were settled on the inaugural day.
G. Srinivasan, Chairman and MD (United India Insurance company Ltd), also chairman of GIPSA (General Insurers'' public sector Association) told reporters, “Two other pilot centres would be opened at Mehsana and Jaipur. India is considered the world's accident capital and has overtaken China in rate of accidents. About 1.2 lakh fatalities take place, and this was a matter of concern."
At present, about 10 lakh accident cases are pending against these four public sector insuring companies. These CMCSTPC centres will help in fast dispersal of these cases.
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Friday, August 5, 2011 11:02 AM]
In April 1985, former Chief Justice of India, P.N. Bhagwati took an initiative of starting Lok Adalats for settlement of motor third party claims. Since then a number of Lok Adalats have been set up all over India for third party claim settlement. This platform has gathered momentum as both insurers and claimants are benefited.
The insurers are interested in settling Third Party claims through Lok Adalats because there is a backlog of pending cases in Motor Accident Claim Tribunal (MACT) and in Lok Adalats the cases are quickly disposed of.
The affiliation of public-sector general insurance companies, The General Insurers Public Sector Association (GIPSA) comprising of New India Assurance, United India Insurance, National Insurance and Oriental Insurance have brought all its cases to Lok Adalats.
In south India, the first-ever Lok Adalat for motor accident claim cases will hold its court at Kochi on 6th August. Pending cases with a claim amount up to Rs. 10 lakh would be taken up in the Adalat.
The Adalat will sit every month and about 400 cases are expected to be settled in every sitting. A senior insurance company officer will coordinate the sitting. A panel of a retired senior medical officer (Orthopeadics), retired district judge and a retired senior officer of a public sector insurance company would settle the amount of compensations to be paid.
Once decided, the payment will be paid within one month. The insuring company would deposit the amount with the Motor Accident Claims Tribunals (MACT) which then will release the amount to the claimant.
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Thursday, August 4, 2011 11:24 AM]
A Reserve Bank of India committee has advocated an increase in the deposit insurance cover to promote people to keep their cash deposits in banks. The committee has recommended the raise in insurance cover from Rs. 1 Lakh to Rs. 5 Lakh.
The panel was constituted under the chairmanship of erstwhile SEBI chairman M. Damodaran in June, 2010 to look into banking services rendered to retail and small customers, including pensioners.
The report submitted by the panel stated, “A possibility may be explored to enable full insurance cover for bank deposits by making necessary amendments in the relevant Acts. In case of sick banks, where the accounts are frozen, a possibility to enable customers to immediately avail themselves of a part of their insured deposits before the final fate of sick banks is decided may be explored.”
The committee also recommended setting up a common toll-free telephone number for customer redressal. It has also advocated that banks should provide customers savings accounts without minimum balance limitation. Currently, minimum balance in banks is from Rs. 1000 to Rs. 25,000.
The panel has also proposed zero accountability against online transactions and loss in ATMs.
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Wednesday, August 3, 2011 1:25 PM]
You never know when trouble comes knocking on your door. Anyone can be a target of kidnapping. It is not only famous or rich to be a kidnap target. In India, snatching for ransom money has become pretty common. The young upper class flushed with money in India has become the new target for criminals.
Some precautions can be taken against kidnapping attempts, but there is no guarantee that you will not be kidnapped. Nevertheless, you can have the protection of having payment option and a Kidnap response to assist in the unfortunate event of kidnapping.
In year 2006, son of Naresh Gupta, Adobe Senior Vice President, was kidnapped in Delhi by two criminals. The ransom demand was Rs. 1 crore. In these types of cases, Kidnap and Ransom (K&R) insurance could make the difference between a successful recovery and disaster.
This event alarmed many corporate and they took the steps to insure their top officials against kidnap and ransom. Indian insurers also responded with K&R insurance policies in the Indian market for corporate executives and individuals.
Indian Insuring Companies such as Tata AIG, INDIA Inc, National Insurance, ICICI Lombard, HDFC Chubb and Bajaj Allianz have started offering K&R polices.
The K&R polices policies provide money for ransom, fees of negotiators and psychiatrists. K&R insurance product has come as a big relief to families residing in crime prone cities.
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Tuesday, August 2, 2011 12:18 PM]
German luxury auto manufacturer Mercedes-Benz sold more than 5,800 cars last year in India, and is working hard to penetrate deeper into the budding luxury car market in India. 75 percent of Indian customers of Mercedes-Benz opted for vehicle finance for buying their cars; so, keeping this in view, Mercedes-Benz is bringing its very own in-house finance unit, Daimler Financial Services to India. Daimler Financial Services is currently operating in more than forty countries all over the world.
Earlier this year, the company applied for permission from Reserve Bank of India. It has obtained the necessary approval from RBI to set up a ‘Non Banking Finance Company’ for its financial services business.
Daimler Financial Services will be headquartered in Chennai and will function as a 100% subsidiary of Daimler AG. The company is starting with an initial investment of about50 million dollars, and its aim will be to support the sale of Mercedes-Benz cars and Daimler Trucks. It will provide complete finance, insurance products and leasing to dealers and customers of Mercedes cars in India under the brand name 'Mercedes-Benz Financial'.
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Monday, August 1, 2011 12:42 PM]
AEGON Religare Life Insurance is soon going to unveil two health insurance products in the market. The company has applied to Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) for getting its approval.
The company has filed an insurance product ‘iTerm Plan’ and a pre-health insurance product with the IRDA. AEGON Religare has recently launched an online unit-linked ‘iMaximize’ targeting the high-net-worth individuals (HNIs).
AEGON Religare Life Insurance Limited (ARLI) is a joint venture between AEGON, Religare and Bennett, Coleman & Co. AEGON is an international investment, life insurance and pension company. Religare has the presence as a global financial services group while Bennett, Coleman & company is India’s largest media house.
ARLI started its operations in India in July, 2008. ARLI has launched a wide variety of insurance products that are customized to provide the clients to meet their long-run financial aims. ARLI’s insurance products such as ‘AEGON Religare iTerm Plan’ and ‘AEGON Religare Future Protect Plan’ are among the best in the market and has won many honours.
