L&T Insurance to inject Rs. 500 crore in business

L&T General Insurance Company has decided to inject Rs. 500 crore in coming three years in its operations. L&T General Insurance is a subsidiary of 11.7-billion dollars L&T Group. It has completed one year of operation and in the same period has accumulated a premium income of around Rs. 80 crore.

The insurer has 33 products and major part of its product is motor insurance, which makes up about 55% of the total business. The company has offices at around 1,000 locations in the country and has released 60,000 policies in the first year of operations.

L&T General Insurance has launched its first health insurance policy “My: health Medisure Prime Insurance” which is suitable for both individuals and families.

This policy offers insurance cover from Rs. 3 lakh to Rs. 10 lakh. For an insurance cover of Rs. 3 lakh for an individual between age of 26 years and 35 years, the annual premium will amount to Rs. 6,600 and Rs. 7,700.

Star Union Daiichi’s customer initiative: online platform ‘E-Life’

Private life insurer Star Union Daiichi has come out with a new customer service initiative to help its customers to remain in constant touch with the company. This is new online customer portal ‘E-Life’.

With its help customers will be able to handle their policy online besides online premium renewal, top-up payment, premium redirection, change of address, change of nominee and change of billing mode. This customer portal will also offer SMS support service to the clients.

Star Union Daiichi is one of the leading private life insurance company in India and is a joint venture between Japan’s Daiichi Life Insurance, Bank of India and Union Bank of India.

Star Health ready to launch individual dental insurance policy

Star Health Insurance Company is planning to bring an all inclusive dental insurance policy in the market soon. 

Presently, there is not a single complete insurance plan for dental treatment. Insurance companies are presently offering only limited coverage and that also for a few dental procedures under general health insurance. 

Now the consumers are becoming more aware about dental care and a need is arising about a comprehensive dental coverage. 

Star Health is formulating a comprehensive dental insurance policy that will cover complete dental health at its selected dental clinics network. The product will be launched initially in Mumbai.

State-funded health cover for all Indian citizens by 2017

The Planning Commission of India has suggested the introduction of a state-funded health insurance programme in 12th five-year Plan (2012-17) to provide health cover to all Indian citizens. The board as advised the government to formulate fiscal inducements for beneficiaries of the program and their employers to urge them to take part in the plan.

The 12th five-year Plan will explore the potential of starting a state-funded  health insurance plan for every citizen along the lines of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana. RSBY is presently available to certain selected groups.

RSBY was started in year 2008 and is presently providing health insurance to approximately 24 million poor people in the country. 

“It’s a step in the right direction but the government needs to decide on a few things, including “the definition of healthcare, who’ll fund it, whether it will be a public-private partnership and whether it will be for families both above and below the poverty line,” said Amarnath Ananthanarayanan, CEO Bharti Axa General Insurance.

A panel official said, “Details of the plan will be formulated once the actual implementation starts, said who declined to be identified. This is just the idea now. When actual implementation happens then all these concerns will be addressed.”

A.M. Best confirms good ratings of LICI

A.M. Best Europe Rating Services Limited has affirmed bbb⁺ issuer credit rating and financial strength rating of B⁺⁺ of Life Insurance Corporation International (LICI). 

These ratings reflect LICI’s healthy profit generation record and its special niche in the market. LICI enjoys a big share of life insurance market in the Gulf among the Indian expatriates living in the region.

LICI's present and future risk-adjusted capitalization is regarded as strong, as proved during the period of financial crisis. LICI showed a healthy resilience to negative market movements during the financial crisis. The corporation has a good record of delivering profits and have a positive future.

A.M. Best Europe Rating Services is a subsidiary of A.M. Best Company. A.M. Best was established in 1899. It is a credit rating organization committed to serve the insurance industry.  Best's analysis and ratings are standard in evaluating the financial strength and trustworthiness of insuring companies.

Insurers should learn from Telecom companies to penetrate rural areas

Today, India stands at second position in population with 1.21 billion people. Still, sixty years after Independency, healthcare access in rural areas is still one of country's greatest challenges. 

The reasons being unevenly distributed healthcare facilities, unavailability of trained healthcare personnel, poor quality of drugs and lack of diagnostic tools. Every year more than one million Indians die, maximum of them being children and women. 

Overall, less than fifteen per cent Indians has health insurance. Rural health insurance is less than ten per cent. Insurance companies should learn from telecom companies in penetrating rural areas. 

In late 90s, when telecom companies started venturing into rural markets, they faced big obstacles due to lack of infrastructure. Unshaken, they first established mobile networks and then studied the needs of rural population and then customized their products for rural markets like cheap handsets and tariffs. 

The companies approached customers at their doorsteps with attractive tariffs and products. The result being, nowadays even poorest of the farmers have cell phones. Insurance companies could learn from telecom companies to penetrate rural regions. 

In the first place, insuring companies should understand the rural customer needs, streamline services, control cost, good customer service and cheap pricing. As the maximum of people in rural areas has limited buying capacity, insuring companies should bring in products at affordable rates just like the telecom companies did.