Page 132 - DMGT512_FINANCIAL_INSTITUTIONS_AND_SERVICES

Unit 8: Insurance Sector

Notes

Notes Internet access in India has doubled every year over the last five years and forecasts
predict this growth to quadruple every year over the next three years. According to
e-marketer report on India online, in 2007, about 33.2 million people in India accessed
internet and that's about 2.9% of Indian population. This figure is going to be 71.6 million
people, which will be about 6% of population by 2011. Considering limited access of
human-insurance agents in rural areas, there will more demand of purchasing insurance
online from these areas, followed by semi-urban areas. The insurance portals that are
active in online distribution are www.icicilombard.com, www.bajajallianz.co.in,
www.insurancemall.in, www.bimaonline.com, www.insurancepandit.com.
Recently, Compare - Choose: Buy portals like Bonsai Insurance Broker's
www.insurancemall.in, have been developed for providing comparison of different types
of insurance policies, their premiums and their purchase online. The policy details are
stored digitally and all transactions are made over secure channels. E-insurance offers a
new gateway of incomes and provides additional market penetration, which is a need of
an hour for Indian Insurance Segment.
The First Movers in e-Distribution of Insurance goes to 3 companies in India:
1. ICICI Lombard General Insurance
2. Bajaj Allianz General Insurance

3. www.insurancemall.in (Created by Bonsai Insurance Broking)

8.6 Summary

The insurance sector in India has come to a full circle from being an open competitive
market to nationalisation and back to a liberalised market again.
Tracing the developments in the Indian insurance sector reveals the 360-degree turn
witnessed over a period of almost two centuries.

8.7 Keywords

Insurance: A social device to reduce or eliminate risk of life and property.
Rating: An opinion regarding securities, expressed in the form of standard symbols or in any
other standardised manner, assigned by a credit rating agency and used by the issuer of such
securities, to comply with a requirement specified by these regulations.

8.8 Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
1. United India Insurance is a leading General Insurance Company with more than three
decades of experience in ..................... Insurance business.
2. IDBI Fortis Life Insurance Co Ltd is a joint venture between ..................... leading financial
conglomerates.
3. Future Generali is a joint venture between the India-based Future Group and the ..................
based Generali Group.

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