Insurance news.. nw stay updated

priyanka1987

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Hey guy's nw here u can get articles, news n current information on INSURANCE.....

U ppl also can post here related information if u have.........

all related information n post are welcome......


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Priyanka

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priyanka1987

New member
[SIZE="7"[FONT="Arial Black"]]Staff driving co car may not get accident claim[/FONT][/SIZE]



NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court (SC) has ruled that unless there is a specific contract, an insurance company is not under an obligation to pay compensation to a person or an employee who dies in a road accident while driving the vehicle of his employer.

Such a liability would also arise only if the claim was made under Section 163A of the Act and not under Section 166 of the Motor Vehicle Act (MVA), said a Bench of Justices CK Thakker and PK Balasubramanyan while upholding an appeal filed by Oriental Insurance Company.

The bench passed the ruling on an appeal filed by the insurance company challenging an Uttarakhand High Court order which had directed the insurer to pay compensation to the claimants of an employee who died while driving the car of his employer. According to the insurance company, deceased Chandra Variyal, regional manager of a company, was driving the car of his employer when he died in a road accident.

However, the family disputed the contention and claimed that Variyal was merely seated in the vehicle and the car was being driven by the company’s driver Mahmood Hasan who drove the vehicle in a rash and negligent manner resulting in the death.

The family filed a claim under Section 166 of the Act and sought compensation for the death on the ground that it occurred due to the negligent driving of the driver.

However, the Motor Accidents Tribunal held that the vehicle was being driven by Variyal and hence the insurance company was not liable for paying the compensation.

But on an appeal from the claimants, the High Court held that the insurer was under an obligation to pay the compensation to the deceased’s family, following which the insurance company approached the apex court. On perusal of the documents, the apex court said that there was no finding to prove the family’s claim that the driver was driving the vehicle in a negligent manner resulting in the accident.

The Bench noted that it was the deceased regional manager who was driving the vehicle and hence without any specific contract, the insurance company was not under any obligation to pay the compensation.

Moreover, the claim under Section 166 made by the family could not be entertained as the onus rested on the claimants to prove that the death occurred due to the negligence of the driver.

The court said that only when a claim is made under Section 163, a person is not required to establish the charge of negligence. Accordingly, the court reversed the decision of the High Court and ruled that the insurance company was not under an obligation to pay the compensation.



source:- economictimes.com

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Priyanka
 

priyanka1987

New member
Central agency soon to process non-life claims


MUMBAI: The non-life insurance industry has decided to outsource settlement of accident compensation claims to a central body to reduce losses arising out of large awards. The central agency will be a department of the General Insurance Corporation and will service all claims for compensation on account of accidents caused by commercial vehicles.

The industry has already been directed by the regulator to pool all losses or profits arising out of motor third-party liability insurance. Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) has said that the motor insurance pool will come into effect from April 1 and will apply to all commercial vehicles. Commercial vehicles would include all makes and classes of vehicles — in short every vehicle with a yellow number plate.

The formalities of centralising the claims procedure are being looked into by a committee headed by Dalip Verma, managing director, Tata AIG General Insurance, with KN Bhandari, CEO, General Insurance Council and Kamesh Goyal, CEO, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance as members.

Speaking to ET, Mr Verma said, “Without the success of this motor pool, the insurance industry does not have a fighting chance of breaking even in motor third party insurance business.” He added that the centralised claims settlement would be handled departmentally by the General Insurance Corporation of India, which would acquire the resources to manage the pool of claims.

The total premium flowing into the commercial vehicle pool was expected to be around Rs 3,000 crore. GIC would get 2.5% of the premium, close to Rs 100 crore, for expenses. The centralised system would have several advantages compared to individual companies. For one, it would have a dedicated team which would work towards early settlement of claims outside courts.

The insurance council has already approached the courts to get an order that would make it mandatory for the policy to serve a notify the insurance company in the event of an accident. “Centralising claims settlement will enable the industry identify areas where accidents are high and help them work towards reducing accidents,” said Mr Goyal. He added that the industry association would identify a chief executive for the claims settlement body.

Irda has allowed non-life insurers to raise premium charges for covering third-party liability for commercial vehicles by 70%. Insurers say that while this hike will alleviate their claims burden, it is not enough for their portfolio to break even.

source:- economictimes.com


Regards,

Priyanka
 

priyanka1987

New member
Indians well informed, but inadequately insured



KOLKATA: Awareness about life insurance among Indians may be as high as 78% but penetration levels are a paltry 24%. In absolute terms, nearly 105 million rural households and 55 million urban households are aware of life insurance. Of these, 78 million in rural India and 31 million in urban India are aware of risk policies but do not possess any.

These are some of the findings of a Max New York-NCAER India Financial Protection Survey . It also notes that more urban households (38%) than rural (19%) actually own life insurance products.

In states like West Bengal, awareness levels are higher at 95%. But merely 31% of households in the state actually own life covering policies. In Kolkata alone, almost 99% households are aware of the product but only half of them own a life policy.

On an all-Indian level, 39 million rural households and 18 million urban households do not own any risk cover despite being aware of life insurance products. And guess what they’re even confident about their future financial stability.
This alone perhaps indicates the lack of awareness about the need for financial protection. “Despite accelerating economic growth, majority of people have inadequate financial protection ,” the study mentioned.

The survey was conducted on a sample of 63,016 households. This set was chosen out of a preliminary listed sample of 4,40,000 households spread over 1,976 villages (250 districts) and 2,255 urban wards (342 towns).The findings include that nearly 40% of life insurance policy owners are regular salary earners, 26% are self-employed engaged in non-agricultural war, 24% are engaged in agriculture , 7% are labourers and about 4% earn their income through other means such as rent. The study also pointed out that at the all-India level, almost 48% life insurance policyholders are in the age group of 30-45 , while 26% are in the age group of 45-60 years.

Nearly, 19% owners are aged between 15-30 years, while just 4% are less than 15-years-old . In the 60-plus age group, another 4% possess life insurance.



Source: economic times.

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Priyanka
 

maverick_ronnie

Par 100 posts (V.I.P)
Insurance Schemes for Agricultural Workers

92 percent of workers are in the unorganised sector. Among them about 237 million are employed in agricultural and allied activities. Inspite of their numerical strength they are extremely vulnerable to exploitation. 40 % of these workers belong to SC/STs. They are mostly landless and extremely poor. The Centre launched 'Krishi Shramik Samajik Suraksha Yojana - 2001' for agricultural workers on 1st July, 2001.. Under the supervision of the Ministry of Labour, the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is implementing the Scheme to provide life-cum-accident insurance, money back, and pension and superannuation benefits to agricultural workers.

Agricultural workers in the age group of 18 years to 50 years are eligible under the Scheme. The worker’s contribution is Rs.l/- per day, or Rs. 365/- per year, and that of the Government of India Rs.2/- per day, or Rs. 730/- per year, per beneficiary. The Scheme is being implemented in the 50 districts covering 10 lakh workers in the first phase of 3 years with a corpus of Rs.150 crore. During the current financial year, it is expected to cover 2.5 lakh agricultural workers @ 5000 workers in each selected district.

LABOUR WELFARE FUNDS

The Ministry took several measures to further improve the Welfare schemes formulated for beedi, non-coal mine and cine workers. The main thrust of the Welfare schemes is in the Health sector as target groups are involved in health hazardous occupations
 

maverick_ronnie

Par 100 posts (V.I.P)
Beedi & Mine workers.

About 3.7 million of the 4.4 million beedi workers have been issued identity cards. There are approximately 1.15 lakh workers engaged in iron-ore, Manganese Ore, Chrome Ore, Limestone and Dolomite mines distributed basically in six states. Projects, for construction of three new 30-beded hospitals have been taken up for beedi workers at Nalanda (Bihar Sharif), Sagar (Madhya Pradesh) and Mukkudar (Tamil Nadu). Review of Group Insurance for beedi workers have been undertaken to make it more effective.
 

maverick_ronnie

Par 100 posts (V.I.P)
EMPLOYEES PROVIDENT FUND SCHEME (EPF).

The Labour Ministry is keen to extend the benefits of the EPF scheme to about 5 crore subscribers in the near future. At present about 2.6 crore employees are covered under the scheme. As part of its efforts to extend the EPF net , the wage ceiling limit was enhanced from Rs. 5000 to Rs. 6,500. Moreover, the benefits of Provident Fund, Pension and Deposit Linked Insurance have been extended to workers engaged in courier, cleaning and sweeping aircraft services.

About ten lakh EPF pensioners from July 2001 have got the option of receiving pension through 26,000 Post Offices across the country. This has been done to help a large number of workers who after retirement go back to their homes located in rural and far-flung areas where banking facilities are not available.

A modernization programme namely ‘ Reinventing Employees Provident Fund – India’ has been launched by Employees Provident Fund Organisation. It involves reengineering of the existing work process, re-tooling of accounting system and setting up of an information technology/computer enabled system through networking of all offices of Employees Provident Fund organisation. It envisages providing all services to every member from any EPF location on a real-time basis. This modernization programme will enable the subscriber to access his account balance and file his claim from any of the offices of EPFO as against the present system which limits him to only one office where he is registered. It will also reduce the time between receipt of claim to issue of a cheque to 2-3 days as against the present stipulated time of 30 days.

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, EPFO, has decided to set up Regional Offices in the newly constituted states of Utranchal, Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh as well as in Goa to serve its beneficiaries nearer their work places. At Present the EFPO has 17 Regional Offices, 68 Sub-Regional offices and 18 Sub-Account Offices spread across the country.
 

maverick_ronnie

Par 100 posts (V.I.P)
EMPLOYMENT & TRAINING

Liberalization and globalisation have changed the economic scenario and demand in the labour market. The role of high quality educated and skilled workers has gained prominence. Under the present labour market scenario, investment in skill development and training by all stake holders and modernization of training systems are important so as to equip labour force with employable skills. A Draft Paper promising new policy initiative for vocational training has been prepared and reviewed by an Expert National Committee comprising all stake holders. The Draft Policy is presently under cosideration of Inter-Ministerial Committee.

To involve user industry as partners in providing specific vocational training, initiatives have been taken for joint management of Industrial Training Institutes by the government and industry in Punjab, Haryana, J&K, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh. The construction of the building for Advanced Training Institute for Electronics and Process Instrumentation at Dheradun was started. The Institute is being set up at a cost of Rs. 14.75 crore. A project has been taken up jointly by DGE&T of the Labour Ministry and the Ministry of Information Technology to introduce the trade "Information Technology & Electronic System Maintenance" in 100 ITIs covering all the states and union territories at a cost of Rs. 11.70 crores.

A fully centrally funded Rs. 100 crore scheme for setting up ITIs and providing technical assistance for training of faculty sponsored candidates in North-Eastern states & Sikkim has been formulated by the DGE&T and the concerned states have been asked to implement it on priority basis.

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
 

priyanka1987

New member
hey karekar tell us someting more abt ur project so that we can help u..... n other than this just search forum there r some projects on insurance r uploaded...... will try our best to help u give us details......

all the best frnd...
take care

Regards,

Priyanka.
 

priyanka1987

New member
SBI Life targets Rs 6,000 cr business


SBI Life Insurance is targeting to double the business to Rs 6,000 crore during the current financial year, a top company official said today.

Tn the last financial year, SBI Life had generated business of Rs 3,000 crore and it is aiming to double it in the current financial year, Managing Director and CEO of the company U S Roy said here.

He said SBI Life's business growth was 300 per cent last year over Rs 1,000 crore in the same period previous fiscal.

Roy added that the company would shore up its capital base to support the growing business. With a current capital base of Rs 500 crore, the company would increase it to the authorised capital base of Rs 1,000 crore as and when required.

Roy said SBI Life would follow the bancassurance model to increase business volumes as it was a more cost-effective route compared to the agency channel.

Last fiscal, the bancassurance route had provided 55 per cent of the business, while the agency channel gave 45 per cent.

While SBI Life would utilise the 14,000 branches of SBI and its associates to sell its policies, the company was also targeting the co-operative banks and the regional rural banks (RRBs) to bring them under the bancassurance fold.

SBI Life had been jointly promoted by State Bank of India and Cardiff SA, the insurance arm of BNP Paribas.

In the last financial year, SBI Life had posted a nominal profit of Rs 2 crore.

Asked whether the company was planning an IPO, Roy said, first a valuation exercise of SBI Life would have to carried out, "then we can think of an IPO."

Currently, SBI Life's market share in the life insurance business was under 4 per cent.


:SugarwareZ-064:
 

priyanka1987

New member

Insurers, hospitals come out with plans for senior citizens



The railways and airlines value them. So does the banking system. But when it comes to healthcare needs, senior citizens are a neglected lot in India. There are hardly any medical insurance schemes for the 65-year-olds and above and the country’s leading hospitals too seem to have shied away from providing special rates.

However, the silver lining is that all insurers and hospital chains are now seriously planing to roll out special senior citizen packages. As long as it makes business sense, that is. After all, rough industry estimates suggest patients above 65 years of age constitute 25-30% of indoor admission patient base for hospitals with revenue contribution of nearly 35-40%.

While few players like Fortis and Wockhardt have senior citizen packages, which entitle them to 20-30% discounts, most private players are largely silent on this. However, these schemes do not account for the high costs associated with hospitalisation.

Apollo Hospitals is currently conceptualising the launch of special discounted rates for all procedures, including indoor admission. “This is likely to be launched this quarter. It will also fulfil our corporate social responsibility. We may provide 10-15% discounts even for chronic ailments,” said V S Reddy, chief executive officer at Apollo Gleneagles Hospital, Kolkata.
While the healthcare industry is still dithering over offering robust pricing to the elderly, a few insurers have come up with a few schemes that specifically addressed their requirements. Maybe with some limitations.

For example, National Insurance Company (NIC) has recently launched a mediclaim policy christened Varishtha Mediclaim. This policy, for the first time, is available to an 80-year-old and is renewable till the age of 90. Against this, a new standard mediclaim policy is available till the age of 60 and one can renew it till s/he attains 80 years.

This policy covers hospitalisation expenses as well as expenses for treatment of critical illnesses, if opted for. Diseases covered under critical illnesses include heart ailments, cancer, renal failure, stroke, organ transplants, paralysis and blindness, at extra premium. Pre-existing diseases under Varishtha Mediclaim are covered after a claims-free year.

Bajaj Allianz General Insurance (BAGI), the second-largest private general insurer, has introduced the Silver Health policy. “It allows one to take a policy till the age of 70 years and one will remain covered till 75. Here, pre-existing diseases are covered after one year, but claims have to be limited to 50% of sum assured,” senior BAGI officials told ET.

Companies like United India Insurance, Oriental Insurance and New India Assurance are in the process of coming out with policies similar to Varishtha Mediclaim. ICICI Lombard General Insurance, the largest private insurer, is also considering a product for senior citizens, a senior company official said.

Interestingly, the healthcare industry feels the future of expanding the spread of senior citizen insurance lies in working together. “We are open to partnering with insurance companies to further increase the coverage of senior citizen discounts and roll out any special product,” said Fortis Healthcare president Daljit Singh.

But before anything, the hospitals want insurance firms to show them the volume and scale of such senior citizen-friendly insurance products. “Insurance is ultimately an arbitrage of number. Insurance companies need to realise that most cases of hospitalisation for senior citizens are to treat complications arising from hypertension and diabetes. Since these are usually not surgical procedures, their treatment costs are much less,” said Wockhardt Hospitals Group CEO Vishal Bali.

The existing schemes of NIC and BAGI come with strings attached. NIC, for instance, has introduced slabs on certain heads of expenses like room rent and ICU charges. “We have seen that more than 60% of all claims are from room rent. Hence, we have capped it. But if someone would prefer to stay at a hospital with higher room rent, s/he may pay higher premium to suit the requirements,” said an NIC official.

The standard mediclaim policy has strict conditions that exclude pre-existing diseases, a second claim for an ailment that has once been diagnosed may not necessarily be covered. Policies for seniors try to cover these points, but still have limitations. Nevertheless, in most cases, the policies for senior citizens are far costlier than the standard polices. :SugarwareZ-064:
 

priyanka1987

New member
LIC’s new premium income zooms 119%



Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has ended the year with new business premium of Rs 39,541 crore — an increase of 118.6% over the corresponding period last year. The corporation has also sold a record 3.82 crore policies during the year, with nearly 80 lakh being sold in the last month.

According to a statement issued by the corporation, over a fourth of the premium has come from pension and group scheme business which contributed Rs 11,282 crore to the new business showing a growth of over 188%.

The first premium income, this year, amounted to Rs 39,541 crore as against Rs 18,085 crore during 2005-06. The corporation has surpassed its internal targets for the current fiscal with a budget achievement of 162%.

A geographical analysis of the premium income reveals that north Indians have invested more with the north zone, accounting for the highest growth rate in premium with 201%. The central zone of the corporation, covering Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh, shows the highest growth rate in policies with 42.65%.

The eastern zone of the corporation continues to dominate in term of number of policies and still holds the number one position with sales of 79.5 lakh polices followed by the south central zone, covering the Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, with 67.61 lakh policies. LIC has procured 5.8 lakh of policies under bancassurance and alternate channels showing a growth rate of 97%.

The premium procured under this channel is Rs 664 crore with a growth rate of 88%. LIC’s micro-insurance product, Jeevan Madhur, launched by the President of India in September last year, has succeeded in extending insurance coverage of Rs 110 crore to 80,637 economically under privileged people in the society.

Under LIC’s group insurance portfolio, the number of lives covered grew by 64% and stood at 84 lakh, up from 51 lakh lives of previous fiscal. The new business premium was Rs 11,282 crore, which exceeded last year’s figure by more than Rs 8,000 crore.:SugarwareZ-064:
 

priyanka1987

New member
Policy Trading: Free or Macabre?

Last week the Bombay High Court adjudged that insurance policies can be freely assigned to a third-party for a price. Reactions to this judgement based on a 70-year-old law have been varied. While some see this as a validation of individual rights in a free market, others fear the birth of a macabre market where investors take bets on the lives of others.

The suit was the fallout of LIC’s decision in 2003 to not assign policies in favour of an investor who saw an arbitrage opportunity between low surrender values on lapsed policies. Arbitration was possible by purchasing the maturity benefits through assignment.

Assignment entitles the third-party to receive the maturity value of the policy as well as receive claims amount in case of a claim. There’s, however, a catch. The original policyholder continues to remain the insured party and claims can arise only when this policyholder meets with an accident or expires. This third party, however, will have to continue to pay premium for the policy, till it matures or the original policy holder /insured files a claim.

LIC officials have objected to assigning policies to investors on three grounds — the practice is not suited for the social milieu in India. Secondly, it goes against the principles of insurable interest and amounts to gambling and it creates a moral hazard. Principles of insurable interest require that the beneficiary of an insurance policy should suffer an emotional or financial loss if the insured event occurs. “Without insurable interest , there could be cases where the beneficiary may put the original policyholder in a situation which could lead to claims — a situation which will require police intervention,” said a senior official from Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance.

Sam Ghosh from Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance said, “Allowing trade makes these policies liquid, but the ‘moral hazard’ aspects are also there. But I guess such events would be rare. We need to examine how it is done in the US or the UK.”

Nevertheless, the regulator — IRDA — feels it is alright to trade insurance policies but cautions that it should be practised with some sort of safe guidelines :SugarwareZ-064:
 

priyanka1987

New member
How to trade an insurance policy


Got a life insurance policy you want to get rid of? Want to earn a little more than what the insurance company would pay you as surrender value? Go, trade in your insurance policy. Thanks to a recent Mumbai high court verdict, you can now trade in your life insurance policy. Especially, on policies you don’t want to continue paying the premium.

In fact, many people were already trading in their policies before the Life Insurance Corporation of India banned the process. Apart from Insure Policy Plus Services (India), a company that specialised in trading in lapsed insurance policies, few individuals were also purchasing lapsed insurance policies to trade in them, said an industry source.

Insure policy Plus Services is said to have bought crores of rupees worth polices and it was the one who approached the court against LIC circulars. However , attempts to contact the I company failed. How does it work? The company or individuals who want to purchase life insurance policies contact insurance agents for details of individuals who have bought insurance products with guaranteed returns, but failed to pay the premium on time.

The next step is to approach this individuals with a slightly better amount than the “surrender value” the insurance companies pay on lapsed policies. ‘‘Many times, the surrender value may be less than the total premiums paid. In such cases the policyholder would be too happy to sell the policy ,’’ said an insurance agent with LIC.

Now, the policyholder would have to assign the policy (the same process in which you transfer the rights to bank or housing finance company to avail loans) to the purchaser . The company or individual who bought the policy will renew the policy and pay the premium for the remaining term. On maturity of the policy, the new owner would get the insured amount plus bonus, all tax free.

An insurance agent offers a practical example : Jeevan Shree, a favourite insurance plan of traders from LIC meant for high networth individuals, used to offer around 9% returns (guaranteed addition plus loyalty addition , in insurance parlance).


:SugarwareZ-191:
 

priyanka1987

New member
Travel is more than champagne & caviar



Sulekha is vacationing in South-East Asia. Unfortunately during one of her visits to a shopping mall, she lost her bag that contained cash and important documents. But unlike other tourists, she didn’t panic as she’d taken a travel insurance before leaving home.

Losing valuables and falling sick is a common problem for travellers, especially those going on a foreign trip. Travellers should ensure that they take out a policy as soon as their international trip gets confirmed to ensure that there are no last-minute hitches.

“Life of an international traveller is not always champagne and caviar. At times he has to live with the nightmare of baggage loss, wallet loss with the credit card included, loss of passport or even a medical emergency requiring immediate hospitalisation. A high medical expense, even to this day, remains the single most import factor while travelling overseas.

Further, the risks related to travelling overseas have now been exposed with disasters like the tsunami and WTC, relative to loss of life and inconvenience faced in such situations,” says Khalid Sohail, head, travel insurance services, Tata AIG General Insurance. Today travel covers are available for both domestic and international travel, though every general insurance company doesn’t provide cover for both. Royal Sundaram, for instance, doesn’t offer domestic travel insurance, but Bajaj Allianz does. Whatever may be the case, travel insurance is increasingly becoming popular owing to the benefits covered under it. Some insurers also offer customised products to suit the customers requirement.

Says Antony Jacob, MD, Royal Sundaram Alliance Insurance Company: “A traveller is exposed to a range of perils when he travels to a foreign land. Be it accidents, sudden illness or mere acclimatisation issues. So, besides the traveller’s passport and tickets, luggage and money, the next important item that should accompany him during his trip is a reliable travel insurance plan to take care of any unexpected event.”

K Krishnamoorthy, head, underwriting, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, agrees: “Travel insurance today is as necessary as any other travel accessory in order to ensure that your travel, either for business or pleasure, is safe from any travel-related emergencies such as loss of passport, hospitalisation and loss of baggage.”

In fact, over the years, international travelling is seen increasing exponentially. Students pursuing higher education, job and professional pursuits, businesses, trade association et al, people are just about exploring every opportunity that could be available on the global canvas. For that matter, even tourism and pleasure travel is seen to be on the rise.

Once abroad, there could be problems related to procedural requirements/documentation that every expatriate needs to fulfil. Some European countries make it mandatory to have a travel insurance right at the time of granting visa. “However, having an overseas travel cover under any circumstances is like a having a friend who comes in good stead when he is needed the most,” informs Sohail.

Royal Sundarams Travel Shield Secure, for instance, is a comprehensive international travel policy that covers the traveller against a wide range of perils. Till the time the traveller returns to India, the Travel Shield Secure guards him from unexpected incidents such as baggage delay, loss of baggage, flight delays, medical expenses and loss of travel documents all under one convenient package and at an affordable price.


:tea:
 

catanalyst

New member
hey can somebody help in finishing a project on micro insurance . it involves the study of diff comapnies in india , their strategy , distribution channel etc
thanx in advance
 

chaitalithakker

Par 100 posts (V.I.P)
hii

culd u help me with some info on auto insurance??

and culd v know the statisitics of people who r not insured at all??

it wuld be amazing figures... as i m not aware and need it..


bye
tc
 
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