Life Insurance in India : Reforms and Impacts
Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Historical Background of Insurance Business in India. 3. Reforms in India’s Life Insurance Sector: A Comparative Study. 4. Effects of the Insurance Sector Reforms in India. 5. Empirical analysis of Reforms. 6. Summary of Recommendations and Conclusions. Bibliography. Annexure. Index.
“Recent years have heralded a period of unprecedented changes in the Indian financial sector. Following the reforms in the banking sector and stock market, reforms in the insurance sector was introduced in 1999, which was a part of the overall financial sector reform. Insurance is very important for any economy and it is especially important for country like India as it works as an important vehicle of savings for the economy for longer period of time. The low level of insurance penetration, higher premiums, less attractive products along with the monopolistic approach of the state life insurer has been highlighted in the Malhotra Committee report and the opening up of the insurance sector has been advocated.
After the introduction of the new economic policy, the Indian economy has witnessed a radical transformation in its structure. The implementations of new economic policy have improved the GDP for the last few years consecutively in and around 8%. This has improved the per capita income of the country. Rural India has also improved its earning from agricultural and non-agricultural incomes. On the other hand, rural people migrated into the urban areas for better job and earnings. The average Indians are young and the rising of middle class peoples in India are acting as a catalyst in the post reform development in India. Under these circumstances this book also tried to find out the determinants of demand for life insurance in India in the post reform era.
The presents study is expected to provide a brief overview on the overall impact of these reforms measures on the life insurance sector and answer the questions regarding the viability of the life insurance sector reforms in India and assess the present Indian life market. The findings and the suggestions of this study will be useful for the policy makers, leaders, potential insurers, researchers, academicians along with the general readers who are interested in the Indian life insurance sector.”(jacket)
