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Sunday, July 31, 2011 11:31 AM]
Central Bureau of India (CBI) has started an investigation against LIC managing director T. S. Vijayan for supposedly abusing his official powers to give special favour to some corporate houses.
Preliminary Enquiry (PE) has been filed and investigation is being carried on against Vijayan, another MD Thomas Mathew, and two more senior executives of LIC for alleged wrongful conduct while investing LIC money in some companies.
Some of the named companies are JP Infratech, JSW Energy and DB Realty. Earlier, T. S. Vijayan was chairman of LIC but was demoted to managing director in May.
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Saturday, July 30, 2011 11:25 AM]
The Oriental Insurance Company Limited (OICL) and the Al Mulla Group of Kuwait have launched a new medical insurance product for Indians living in Kuwait under the motto ‘Insuring a Better future’.
Oriental Insurance Company Limited (OICL) is one of the biggest general insurance companies in India. Al Mulla Group is one of the business leaders in Kuwait. Both the companies are in partnership since 1985.
The new insurance program is available to all legal Indian residents in Kuwait and their dependants, including parents if they are permanent residents in Kuwait. Maximum age limit for adults is 65 years, and the children are included from 14 days to 21 years old.
The insurance product allows the continuous cover on returning to India. Medical check-up is compulsory for people aged above 50 years.
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Friday, July 29, 2011 11:10 AM]
India’s second largest public sector bank Punjab National Bank has decided to buy 30% stake in private insurance company, MetLife India. This move will make PNB the largest stockholder in MetLife India. Once the agreement is finalized the venture is to be renamed PNB MetLife India.
PNB is rated as the second-largest bank in the country after State Bank of India in terms of number of branches. MetLife India Insurance Comp. Ltd. is a joint venture between MetLife International Holdings, Inc., M. Pallonji and Co. Pvt. Ltd. and the Jammu and Kashmir Bank and is one of the fastest growing life insurers in the country.
Punjab National Bank had invited expression of interest from many insurance companies for partnership in the life insurance sector in December last year. Forty-one companies responded, out of which ten were shortlisted. Out of these, three were finalized. These three were Aviva, Metlife and Bharti AXA.
Based on the financial bids, PNB accepted MetLife India’s offer. Officials at PNB had not revealed the financial details of the agreement. The deal is finalized once it is approved by regulatory bodies such as IRDA and the Reserve Bank of India.
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Thursday, July 28, 2011 11:14 AM]
One year back, most of the hospitals had a different billing structure for patients having insurance cover; these patients were charged higher as compared to other patients who were paying from their own pockets.
This was a point of debate between insurers and hospitals. The insurance sector reacted to this dual billing system by bringing out its own standardized rate list and depaneled those hospitals that were not willing to abide by. Insuring industry also created its own panel of approved hospitals for cashless treatments by the name of preferred provider network (PPN).
Now, the patients are starting to benefit from the standardized rate list brought in by the industry for medical procedures. If hospitals overcharge, then insurers are getting these hospitals to give back the overcharged amount to patients. The claims are also coming down, and this has reduced the pressure on health insurance companies.
Now cashless is also back. Currently, 456 hospitals in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore are providing this facility. In near future, Kolkata, Ahmadabad, Chandigarh and Hyderabad will also be added to the list of cities with cashless facility.
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Wednesday, July 27, 2011 11:58 AM]
LIC International launched its latest product ‘Gold Plus’ on Tuesday in Oman. ‘Gold Plus’ is a unit linked insurance plan and is specifically customized for the benefit of non-resident Indians living in Oman.
LIC International is a subsidiary of Life Insurance Corporation of India and is headquartered in Muscat, the capital of Sultanate of Oman. The product was unveiled by His Excellency Anil Wadhwa, India’s Ambassador to the Sultanate.
Gold Plus offers insurance cum investment feature with a choice to alter it into a pension/annuity at the time of maturity. The policy-holder has the choice of selecting the insurance cover depending upon the amount of premium he wants to pay.
Gold Plus allows for the opportunity to the policy-holders to invest in Gold Spot and Gold Exchange-traded fund (ETF) and can fulfil financial needs such as children’s education, marriage, etc.
The policy can be bought by people aged up to 72 years. The customers can receive maturity benefits in one lump sum or in instalments over a period of five years as an annuity. The time period for the policy term is 5 to 35 years. The mode of payment is one time single premium, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly.
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Tuesday, July 26, 2011 12:11 PM]
India’s insurance watchdog IRDA is soon going to permit promoters of life insurance firms to sell their strategic interest after five years instead of the present period of ten years.
The modified rules and regulations are likely to be announced in the month of August. The new norms may change the rule of five year lock in period for those companies subscribing to initial public offerings of insurers.
The subject has been under IRDA consideration for quite some time now.
The decision to bring the ten year locking period was taken as Insurance is a long-gestation business, and demands strong loyalty from its promoters. The decision was taken to discourage those business concerns expecting to make fast windfall gains.
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Monday, July 25, 2011 12:27 PM]
Indian Government flagship health insurance scheme “Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana” will soon be broadened to cover 7 more unorganized worker sectors; rickshaw pullers, rag pickers, auto rickshaw and taxi drivers, miners, toddy workers and sanitation workers will soon be provided the benefits of this scheme and as the government is gradually expanding its range to include most of the workers pursuing informal vocations.
A Labour and Employment ministry official said, "Our aim is to gradually cover all workers in the unorganized sector."
Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) was started in April 2008, after studying other successful health insurance models in the world having same settings.
RSBY is a project of Government of India’s Ministry of Labour and Employment. Its aim is to provide health insurance coverage for Below Poverty Line (BPL) families.
Under RSBY, Beneficiaries are permitted to hospitalization coverage up to Rs. 30000 for almost all diseases. There is no age limit and all pre-existing medical conditions are covered from day one. Up to five members of the family are covered, including the head of household, spouse and three dependents.
The registration fee is only Rs. 30, while State and Central Government pay the premium to the insuring company which is selected based on competitive bidding.
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Sunday, July 24, 2011 11:39 AM]
Till now in India, only allopathy was covered under health insurance policies while alternative medicine regimes such as homeopathy, ayurveda, unani and naturopathy treatments were left out. Even people having a comprehensive health insurance plan, had to pay from their own pocket if using these systems.
Now many insurance companies have started providing cover to such alternative forms of treatment, especially Ayurveda. Some insuring companies are only offering it under group policies, while others have started offering this facility to individuals.
New India Assurance, Allied Insurance and Star Health have brought ayurvedic treatments under individual policies. Future Generali Insurance offers it under the corporate group insurance scheme and ICICI Lombard covers it under government scheme.
Segar Sampath Kumar, DGM, New India Assurance said, “New India Assurance's extends cover to individuals undergoing treatment with the help of Ayurvedic, homeopathic and Unani systems of medicine. Such claims will be covered only to the extent of 25% of the sum insured. Furthermore, they need to have availed of the treatment at a government hospital to be eligible for the claim."
Chola Individual Health line Insurance policy provides coverage for Ayurveda during, prior and post hospitalization.
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Saturday, July 23, 2011 4:17 PM]
Now, driving safe in India will soon be rewarded. Being safe on the road and sticking by traffic rules now will not go unacknowledged in India. Before long, incentives for healthy driving habits will be rewarded in the shape of lower insurance premium.
Future Generali Insurance Company is preparing to launch this ‘pay as you drive’ motor insurance policy shortly. In this model, motor insurance premium is calculated on the motor owner’s driving conduct and mileage he clocks.
As bad drivers and those with a higher mileage are more at risk, the insurance premium paid by these drivers would be higher as compared to those paid by good drivers and infrequent users of vehicles. People going on long holidays would be exempted for the whole year; they would only have to pay for the number of days they really use the vehicle.
Future Generali is now formulating the pricing model and will soon apply to the IRDA for approval. The company is hoping to launch it within three months.
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Friday, July 22, 2011 1:22 PM]
Future Generali India Insurance has launched two new services “Future Xpress” and “Future Xpress+” for speedy and smooth and motor claims settlements. The services were launched in Chennai city on Wednesday.
The main aim of both services is to offer clients a more customized service for smooth and rapid settlement of motor claims.
It is a general perception among customers that motor insurance claims process is burdensome, wearing and time taking task, so both these services will offer clients a smooth claims settlement process.
Future Xpress+ is for those customers who want to get their loss evaluated and claim settled on the spot with an additional option of getting their vehicle fixed at the workshop of their choice.
Future Xpress is for those customers who want to get their vehicle repaired on high priority and at lower costs.
To begin with, the request for survey of damaged vehicle and verification of documents is a complicate and rigorous process; furthermore, it was compulsory to have the motor vehicle surveyed before and after repairs. Both the insured party and insurer had very little control on the full procedure.
Future Xpress+ and Future Xpress will make this process easy through isolation of smaller claims that will be handled differently at multiple-touch points. This will save significant costs and time.
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Thursday, July 21, 2011 11:30 AM]
Almost a year has gone by since the Air India Mangalore crash took 158 lives. Controversy erupted between the relatives of crash victims and Air India over the basis of compensation claims.
The insurance companies had calculated the compensation the basis of 'the loss of livelihood’, whereas the victims' families wanted it on the basis of 'the loss of life’. The victims' families claim was that according to Montreal Convention, compensation should be calculated on the basis of 'the loss of life’.
The Montreal Convention lays down rules & regulations regarding compensation for the victims of air tragedies. The convention also defends passengers' rights to claim compensation without the call for prolonged judicial proceedings.
The flag carrier at first agreed to pay a compensation of Rs. 20 Lakh each to the victims' kin. However, the victims' kin didn’t agree and took the case to the Kerala High Court.
Now, the Kerala High Court has directed Air India is to pay Rs. 75 Lakh each to the families of 158 passengers killed in the Mangalore crash. The court has given Air India a month’s time to pay the compensation.
This compensation will be one of the highest ever paid by any airline in India.
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Wednesday, July 20, 2011 11:39 AM]
Piramal Healthcare is in negotiations to buy Enam Financial's share in ING Life Insurance, according to informed sources. ING Life Insurance is a joint venture between ING Insurance International B.V. holding 26% shares, Exide Industries holding 50% and others 24%.
There is still no finality as the transactions are still on. This is the first step taken by Piramal Healthcare in the long term scheme of building up a financial services company. The company has sought the permission from the Reserve Bank of India to start a financial services company.
A year before, Piramal Healthcare, which has reserves more than 3 billion dollars, had announced its intent to invest in financial services.
ING Life is one of the earliest entrants in the insurance industry but has not been able to make a mark in the industry. ING Life Insurance was established in 2001.
ING Life India posted a net profit of Rs. seven crore in the fourth quarter of 2010-11. The company is aiming to break even by the year 2013. The insuring company functions through bancassurance. It has offices in 229 cities, and a force of over 35,000 agents.
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Tuesday, July 19, 2011 11:21 AM]
India's Leading Business Newspaper, The Economic Times is organizing ‘Insurance Summit 2011’ with an aim to bring together, on one platform, some of the best names of Indian Insurance Industry. The dignitaries will share their point of view on the opportunities and fundamental challenges facing the Indian insurance industry.
The Summit will be chaired by D.K. Mehrotra, MD of LIC of India. Mr. J. Hari Narayan, Chairman, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority will also address the summit.
There will be different interactive sessions in the summit focussing on various topics such as ‘Insuring India in the face of emerging opportunities and challenges’, ‘preparing the Insurance industry to sail through rough seas’, ‘Insurance Industry: Exploring new horizons’ and ‘Pensions to harness growth in the sector’.
Various strategies will be discussed to prompt growth of the Insurance industry in India. Presently, there is very less penetration of Insurance in India.
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Monday, July 18, 2011 1:38 PM]
According to National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data, every year almost 65% of India's poor people get into debt and 1% fall into BPL because of expenditures on health. In India, health insurance presently covers only 15% of the total population.
Growing number of poor people in India are trapped into debt due to their medical expenses. India’s apex business organization, The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) said that steps are needed to raise health insurance penetration. According to FICCI, India’s vision in healthcare should be to include at least 50% of population in health insurance scheme maximum by year 2020 and 80% by the year 2030.
In its crusade to help IRDA in the health insurance sector, FICCI has proposed extensive recommendations on matters such as standardization of critical illnesses definition and details, standard guidelines for treatment, standard billing procedures and standardization of list of non-medical expenses.
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Sunday, July 17, 2011 1:35 PM]
US health insurance company, Aetna International, making it move into the Indian market, has acquired Indian Health Organization Pvt. Ltd.
Aetna International is one of the largest and most prominent health insurance companies in the world, providing health cover to more than 400000 people all across the world.
The company offers a broad range of consumer-directed and traditional products, including medical, group life, disability plans, long-term care, pharmacy, dental and health care management services.
IHO will function as a separate business concern under Aetna International present leadership organization. Acquisition of IHO has given Aetna direct access to a client base of 80,000 members and a network of nearly 3,000 clinics, labs, dentists, and doctors.
IHO is presently operating across eighteen cities in India, and Aetna aims to keep back the present management and all employees of IHO.
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Saturday, July 16, 2011 1:31 PM]
Indian Railways, which transports 300 lakh passengers per day, is incurring high losses because of accidents as it has to pay compensation from its own coffer because it has no insurance cover.
The Indian Railways decided to stop buying insurance in year 2009 after realizing it would have to pay Rs. 78 crore as the premium, compared to Rs. 77 crore in the previous year. Since then, it has been paying compensation out of its own pocket.
But the irony is, these compensations are much more than the amount it would have paid for the insurance cover. By not taking the insurance cover, the railways had been saving approximately Rs. 40 crore per annum since last two years. However, it has paid about Rs. 150 crore in compensation for injury, death and loss of booked goods.
Train accidents of Guwahati-Puri Express in Assam and Kalka Mail in Uttar Pradesh have left 70 deaths, and 300 injured, costing the Railways approximately Rs. 10 crore, which will be paid out of its pocket.
The railways claimed that it stopped the policy cover not only to save money, but also because the insurance companies were making excessive delays in the claims process.
According to Indian Motor Vehicles Act, Insurance is must for automobiles. Even airline companies, which are incurring heavy losses, are forced to take insurance cover. If any airline does not purchase cover, its flights are not allowed to rake off.
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Friday, July 15, 2011 11:25 AM]
SBI Life Insurance, a subsidiary of State Bank of India, is awaiting the government decision to float initial public offer (IPO). All insuring companies are waiting for the government decision on increasing foreign partners' stake holding from 26% to 49%.
The parent company, State Bank of India is also planning to raise Rs. 20000 crore by various means. SBI is India's biggest lending institute and is awaiting government's sanction for the projected rights issue of Rs. 20000 crore.
The issue of capital might be discoursed at a special board meeting on 6th August. The SBI chairman, Mr. Pratip Chaudhuri said SBI requires Rs. 47000 crore to endorse its business growth in the coming three years.
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Thursday, July 14, 2011 11:22 AM]
The three blasts that shook Mumbai on 13th July are likely to force insuring companies to raise terror insurance premium. Insurance experts are of the opinion that the chances of terror attacks are going to increase over the years, and Wednesday's attacks may raise risk perception.
In India, General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC) is the body which manages the terror pool and terror loss claims are paid out of this pool.
MD and Chairman of GIC, Yogesh Lohiya said, "We were thinking of bringing down the premium, but after this, we may stick to existing rates."
The terror insurance premium rates in India are controlled by the terrorism insurance pool. Terror occurrences like those of Mumbai on Wednesday increases risk perception and may raise premium rates in reinsurance driven terrorism insurance.
The majority of Zaveri Bazaar shopkeepers took insurance cover after the blast in year 2003. After the Mumbai terror attack on 26th November 2008, claims worth Rs. 600 crore were paid from the pool.
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Wednesday, July 13, 2011 11:16 AM]
India has now become the eleventh largest insurance market in the World, overtaking Spain. Indian insurance market has climbed up 10 places in the last ten years; yet Indian insurance companies on an individual basis, are yet to make their presence in the world insurance market due to their localized operations.
As per a report by Swiss Re on world insurance markets in 2010, the total global premium amount went up to $4339 billion in year 2010; an increase of 2.7%.
In ten years since the opening up of the Indian insurance sector to foreign investors, the Indian insurance industry has overtaken many developed countries. In the life insurance sector, India has overtaken ten major markets in the last ten years. These include - Spain, Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, Ireland, Canada, Netherlands, Taiwan and South Africa.
However, the Indian insurance companies have yet to make it to the top 20 list as their operations are mainly limited to Indian market.
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Tuesday, July 12, 2011 10:59 AM]
The UP government has finalized LIC of India as the official partner for disbursing Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) annuity packages to farmers whose land has been acquired by the state for development projects.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) will be signed between UP government and LIC to distribute the package for thirty-three years. This is the first time in India that annuity distribution has been sourced to a financial organization in the country.
UP government invited bids for disbursement of Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) annuity packages from various financial organizations in the country. Five financial institutions showed interest, including LIC, Bajaj Allianz Allahabad Bank, ICICI Prudential Life and SBI Life Insurance. Bidding process took six months, and LIC was selected as the partner.
Under the Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) policy, landowners and farmers whose land has been acquired by the government will be given an annuity of Rs. 23,000/acre/year for 33 years, with an extra sum of Rs. 800 increased annuity per annum.
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Monday, July 11, 2011 11:26 AM]
IRDA has fined SBI Life Insurance for releasing unauthorized payments up to several banks. SBI Life Insurance is among the India’s biggest private life insuring companies and a subsidiary of State Bank of India.
SBI Life has been ordered to pay Rs. 70 lakh by the insurance watchdog for making unlawful payments about Rs. 204 crore to several banks.
Pronouncing the punishment, IRDA said that insurance rules & regulations do not allow companies to make any payment to corporate agents except the commission sanctioned by the IRDA.
In spite of these specific rules, the insuring company paid money to eight corporate agents and six other master policy holders.
SBI Life had argued that these payments were paid for some services rendered by these entities. Nevertheless, this statement was not accepted by the regulator.
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Sunday, July 10, 2011 11:23 AM]
Transporters all over India is planning to go on a nationwide strike at the end of July to protest against the increase in third party insurance and rising prices of diesel, tyres, toll tax, etc.
All-India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) has called for a meeting at Hubli in Karnataka on 18th July to announce a date for the agitation.
The meeting will be presided by the AIMTC and more than 500 union members from all over the country will attend the meeting. Decisions regarding future action will be taken at the meeting, and a joint memorandum will be drafted.
Speaking on the occasion, Bombay Goods Transport Association general secretary Sunil Kale said, “Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) had hiked third party insurance premiums by 68%. It is yet another burden on transporters. Our association strongly opposes the IRDA's decision to increase third party cover without consulting the stake holders (transporters)."
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Saturday, July 9, 2011 11:47 AM]
Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) has confirmed that it will come out with an IPO for its insurance business sector in approximately two years.
At the AGM of the company, HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh said, "We are planning to come up with an IPO for insurance in two years." He further added that the new IRDA guidelines allowing life insuring companies to come out with an IPO minus three year profitability clause would be a big help but also added that HDFC would need to talk about it with its partner Standard Life.
He said Standard Life would have to increase its share from 26% to 49%, so that part of its increased stake can be extended to the investors.
IRDA is preparing to permit foreign investors to raise their stake to 49% from 26% in the insurance sector.
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Friday, July 8, 2011 10:25 AM]
HDFC Life, one of the India's top private life insurers, has been declared one of the best companies to work for in India in a study by ‘Great Place to Work®’. The insurance company took part in the Great Place to Work® study and stood first in the insurance class and was placed 40th in the list of Top 50 Best Companies to Work for in India 2011 list. This is the second time in a row that the company has won this honour.
“Great Place to Work® Institute is an innovator in analyzing and distinguishing best workplaces around the world for over twenty-five years in forty-six countries. This is the eighth study, the institute conducted in India. About 470 companies took part in the study. HDFC Life entered the study for the second consecutive time.
Speaking on the occasion, Executive Vice President (Human Resources and Administration) of HDFC Life, Mr. Rajendra Ghag said, “Best Companies to Work is a prestigious award and I'm very proud of what we have achieved. Becoming an employer of choice is one of our stated objectives & this recognition is an indication that we are headed in the right direction.”
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Thursday, July 7, 2011 12:20 PM]
India's second largest public sector bank, Punjab National Bank (PNB), is all set to enter the Canadian market. The bank will foray into Canada by launching a subsidiary with an approximated working capital of Rs. 100 crore.
Presently, PNB is also operating in Dubai, China and England. In Canada, initially, the bank will provide its services to Indians.
The bank has lately opened a representative office in Norway and is planning to open a similar office in Australia. PNB had also a presence in Kazakhstan. There, it is the majority partner in Kazakhstan-based Dana Bank.
In 2010, PNB received the green light to set up its office in Canada from the Reserve Bank of India. It expected all the formalities to complete by December 2010, but is still waiting for the Canadian central bank to grant permission to start their operations.
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Wednesday, July 6, 2011 11:56 AM]
India’s private insurance companies had reduced their workforce by 27% in last fiscal year to attain profitability. As on March 31, 2011, the number of people hired by these companies was 60,215, as compared to 81,507 within the same period last year. They also shut down more than 900 branches and about 174 000 agents were forced out.
Within the same period of time, they showed marked improvement in productivity. Bajaj Allianz showed a profit of Rs. 1060 crore and another private insurer ICICI Prudential posted a net profit of Rs. 810 crore. These two companies axed 12,000 employees and closed down 650 branches.
The insuring companies are maintaining that they had to sacrifice their workforce to attain profitability and had no other alternative.
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Tuesday, July 5, 2011 1:50 PM]
MetLife India Insurance Company has joined hands with the India Unite to End Polio Now (IUEPN) crusade, endorsed by UNICEF for polio eradication campaign. The campaign will employ SMSs and space on public transport buses for circulating Polio eradication awareness messages.
MetLife has joined as a communication partner in IUEPN programme. As part of the campaign, SMS will be sent to all MetLife’s clients to create awareness for polio eradication and also to notify them about the pulse polio due dates.
Specially brand marked public buses with polio eradication messages such as ‘Do boond har bar hai bachav sahi', ‘Polio ka koi ilaaj nahi’, , and 'Pehle Panch saal’, mere bachchon ko do boond har bar' are also launched. HOHO buses in Delhi are also being used for circulating awareness messages.
IUEPN is a programme carried out by Aidmatrix Foundation, supported by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) and UNICEF. Other partners are National Polio Surveillance Project (NPSP), World Health Organisation, US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and Rotary International.
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Monday, July 4, 2011 12:43 PM]
The new draft guidelines issued by the IRDA for the initial public offering (IPO) by life insuring companies would keep promoters from getting out of their ventures or bringing in new partners within ten years of operations, according to Industry experts.
According to the new rules, life insurance companies’ promoters can dilute or withdraw their holdings after ten years of operations by issuing capital under the inter-corporate deposit regulations or divesting equity through inter-corporate deposit regulations and issuing capital or divesting through other means.
Under the proposed norms, the ten year operations clause may become compulsory for insurers aiming to raise capital through a public issue under inter-corporate deposit norms, or if a promoter intends to reduce stake. Experts assert this could hit promoters’ future plans to raise money.
There are two sections on transfer of shares in the Insurance Act, Section 6A and Section 6AA. First section calls for prior permission for transfer of stakes above 5% and second section addresses divestment or public issue by promoters after ten years to bring down their holding to 26%.
If the regulations come into force, it might limit any stake transfer during the first ten years of the company’s operations.
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Sunday, July 3, 2011 11:37 AM]
US has once again raised demand for further opening up of the Indian financial service sector to foreign direct investment (FDI), especially in the field of insurance. Presently, there is a cap of 26% on FDI in the insurance sector.
The US demand has come barely days after United States and India had set a schedule to expand economic tie-up, especially in the financial sector. The decision was taken in the second ministerial meeting of the US-India Economic and Financial Partnership in Washington between Indian finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and United States secretary of the treasury Timothy Geithner.
Assistant secretary in the US department of commerce, Michael C. Camunez said, “With rising income and growing middle class, India’s need for insurance cover is extremely high and if India liberalizes cap on financial services sector, it would be a win-win situation for both of us as US insurance industry is willing to invest here.”
As per Camunez, there are enormous possibilities for US companies to invest in the non-renewable and renewable energy sector in India as part of India’s projected 1.2 trillion dollars investment in infrastructure growth.
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Saturday, July 2, 2011 10:32 AM]
The health insurance industry is buzzing with the finalization of Health Insurance Portability becoming effective from 1st October, 2011. IRDA has set October 1st as the maximum date.
Previously, IRDA has set July 1st 2011 as the date of launching. But insurance companies wanted more time as they were not ready. The Insurers believed that there was lack of clarity on various issues related to portability.
Representative body of the general insurance companies in India-General Insurance Council (GIC) wrote to IRDA on behalf of the insurers seeking a delay until all related issues were clear.
On 8th of July, representatives of all twenty-two health insurance companies met in Mumbai to consider feasibility and issues related to health insurance portability. After that, GIC sent the draft copy of the agreement to IRDA.
IRDA, after looking at all the angles, decided in favour of the companies and postponed the date to October 1st.
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Friday, July 1, 2011 12:38 PM]
The Central Government has made it mandatory for customers to submit their PAN card number while paying a life insurance premium of Rs. 50,000 or above from 1st July onwards.Coming into effect from July 1st, quoting PAN will be compulsory for any purchase of bullion or jewellery above Rs. Five lakh or insurance premium of Rs. 50,000 or above, according to the amendments in I.T rules.
Previously, purchase or sale of immovable property valued at Rs. Five lakh or above, purchase or sale of vehicles except two-wheelers, issuance of credit card and bank deposits above Rs50,000 required PAN.
This step is being taken by the finance ministry to tackle the issue of black money. High-value purchase of valuables, including jewellery and bullion is reported to be the favourite route for laundering of black money.
This has inspired the I.T department to make it mandatory for purchasers to quote their PAN numbers to buy gold worth Rs. Five lakh and above. It is anticipated that this step will curb black money transactions.
