Pranab pill for insurance growth
PINAK GHOSH
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and LIC chairman T.S. Vijayan (second from right) giving away LIC-Aadhaar Unique Identification cards in Raghunathganj on Saturday. (PTI)
Raghunathganj (Murshidabad), Feb. 5: Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee today said public-private partnerships in general insurance were necessary to promote this sector.
The Union government is keen to expand crop insurance and medical insurance through such partnerships.
“Unlike other nations, we are very backward when it comes to general insurance. Only 8 to 10 per cent people reap the benefits of general insurance. We have very good presence in the life insurance sector and we want to replicate it in general insurance as well.”
“General insurance can benefit not only farm workers, but also small and medium business owners,” he said.
Only 8 to 10 per cent of the 16 to 18 per cent people insured in the country buy general insurance and it is much lower compared to other countries.
Mukherjee was speaking at the launch of an insurance agent training facility of Universal Sompo General Life Insurance at his home constituency.
.N. Singh, chairman and managing director of Universal Sompo, said, “Our objective is to create awareness about the benefits of insurance and agents from our training centres would be capable of doing that.”
Singh said these training centres would not only provide employment to many people in the region but also result in greater penetration of general insurance in rural areas.
Singh was also upbeat that Universal Sompo would be able to generate Rs 300 crore in revenues at the end of this fiscal and may even launch 75 general insurance products at the end of the same.
Even as 53 per cent of Universal Sompo’s business comes from the automobile market and 12 per cent from the health market, Singh said they were planning to focus on the heath sector to increase the business to 25 per cent.
Universal Sompo is a joint venture between Allahabad Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Dabur Investment and Sompo Insurance (Japan). It is the first public-private joint venture in general insurance and started its operations in November 2008.
LIC growth
The LIC today said the involvement of its housing subsidiary in loan-for-bribes scam will not affect its growth and is targeting a premium income in excess of Rs 2,00,000 crore for the current fiscal.
“We hope to grow 16-17 per cent next year and there is no impact of the scam,” LIC chairman T.S. Vijayan said at the launch of LIC-Aadhaar UID cards in Raghunathganj.
Black money
The government has sent notices to 17 persons related to black money stashed away in foreign banks, Pranab Mukherjee said in Calcutta before leaving for Murshidabad. However, he refused to reveal their names. “We have received 18 names and sent notices to 17 persons and prosecution will start shortly,” he said.
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