Insurance - Introduction

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Insurance can be understood as the method of reimbursement or protecting an individual from risk of losses through money, in exchange for small and regular payments to the insuring body or insurance company. A company that sells insurance called insurer and the person who holds the insurance certificate called insured. Insurance can be categorized into 3 forms:

Life Insurance: This is kind of insurance a person can buy through life insurance certificate. The insurance generally brought for a certain period till which the buyer pays to insurance company certain amount called premium. Upon completion of said period the insurance company pays back to buyer total money paid by him / her with certain amount of interest rate. However, in case of buyer’s death during this period the money pays back to kith and kin of the person by insurance company.

Medical Insurance: Also called mediclaim, in this kind of insurance a person pays premiums to insurance company on year to year basis. In case of any sickness etc the insurance company bears the cost of treatment for the person’s health. Mediclaim can be purchased for a single person as well as for entire family together.

General Insurance: This kind of insurance includes risks associated with general life like business, motor vehicle, mortgage etc. The process is almost same as for mediclaim.

Insurance ‘the business of fear’ in India is $41billion industry and growing at rapid pace of 32 – 34% annually. There are both government owned and private insurance companies in India which offers you big money or help in exchange of small amount of money in case something misshapen with you, be it natural disaster, health hazard, theft or any other kind of risk. Today, India is the country of one billion people but in compared to United States where almost 75% population covered under mediclaim India has only 0.2% of the total population covered under mediclaim.

Considering above figure it’s obvious to suppose that India has big market for insurance business. Potential is worth and hence India government revised its policies in 1999 for insurance companies and allows foreign direct investment of 26% in Indian Insurance sector. Life Insurance of India (LIC) is a major government entity which was completely nationalized in 1956 under life insurance corporation act. Today LIC sells all sorts of insurance for everyone’s needs, you name it, and they have it. Besides there are many more government and private entities including banks operating in insurance business.

Following given a tentative list of insurance companies in India:

• Life Insurance Corporation of India
• MetLife India Life Insurance
• ICICI Prudential
• Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance
• Max New York Life Insurance
• Sahara Life Insurance
• TATA AIG Life Insurance
• HDFC Standard Life
• Birla Sunlife
• SBI Life Insurance Company Limited
• Kotak Life Insurance
• Aviva Life Insurance
• Reliance Life Insurance Company Limited - Formerly known as AMP Sanmar LIC
• ING Vysya Life Insurance
• Shriram Life Insurance
• Bharti AXA Life Insurance Co Ltd
• Future Generali Life Insurance Co Ltd
• IDBI Fortis Life Insurance
• AEGON Religare Life Insurance
• DLF Pramerica Life Insurance
• CANARA HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce LIFE INSURANCE
• Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co. Ltd.
• IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company

Insurance Business in India is regulated by Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA). Like other sectors, engineering, health, science, applied arts; Insurance also needs services of eligible human resources to deal with insurance work. People from any walk of life can join insurance companies to work with; however, those who have background in commerce and mathematics are preferred choice.

In recent years many institutes started training people in insurance business and awards diplomas and degrees. Also many institutes come up for the sole purpose of offering education in insurance. Career Opportunities in insurance business are enormous which is growing and expected to grow manifold in coming years. For the benefits of career seekers National Network of Education (NNE) provides here exclusive details about career opportunities in insurance. Keep Surfing! Remember, indiaeducation.net is best sources for all sorts of educational information in India.