Expert Zone
Straight from the Specialists
Pension plans are making a comeback
(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and not of Reuters)
Life insurance companies had all but exited the pension sector after tough regulations were put in place to guarantee returns for the investor. This is a vital sector for insurance companies and hit overall business.
In 2010/11, new business of 122 billion rupees was added in the pension sector. This fell to 111.7 billion rupees in the following fiscal year. Worse, deletions in the business increased from 68.9 billion rupees to 195.2 billion rupees last year — surely that would have hurt.
So why did insurance companies drop this huge business opportunity? The sticking point seemed to be the regulation which mandated a guaranteed non-zero rate of return on investments made till the date of vesting.
This guaranteed return was earlier mandated at 4.5 percent by the regulator but was diluted to non-zero returns when it was found to have no takers.
Parallel between cash transfer schemes and health insurance claims
(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author, and not necessarily of Reuters)
The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that the direct cash transfer scheme is a money saver for the government and the taxpayer. A direct parallel is the way insurance companies handle claims in health insurance plans.
Health insurance in new, improved avatar
(The views expressed in this column are the author’s own and do not represent those of Reuters)
“Till now our focus was to work as a development authority but now it has been more than a decade and it is time to act as a regulatory authority,” Hari Narayan, the chairman of India’s Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) was quoted as saying in a recent interview.
Taking health insurance for granted
(The views expressed in this column are the author’s own and do not represent those of Reuters)
Chances are you haven’t given this much thought. It would be part of some document which you signed when you joined the company. For a majority of those in the corporate world, health insurance is provided by the employer — to such an extent that you take it for granted.
Health insurance for people with HIV
(The views expressed in this column are the author’s own and do not represent those of Reuters)
The insurance regulator recently floated a proposal which mandates all health insurance providers to put an underwriting policy in place for covering people with HIV or those working closely with HIV+ persons, such as doctors and nurses.
How to age gracefully
(The views expressed in this column are the author’s own and do not represent those of Reuters)
The title of this article may appear an oxymoron to a first-time reader. How can old age be associated with grace? No one likes to grow old and eventually die, despite this being an irreversible universal truth.
