Health and accident insurance in India to skyrocket by 22 percent by 2015

According to a report just released by BRICdata, the health and accident insurance market in India is expected to keep up its trend toward massive growth, and will see an increase of 22 percent over a span of 5 years. The anticipated rise, along with the lower need for capital will form an appealing marketplace for new firms to start to take their place. The report also explained that the environment may also be quite attractive for new startups, as well. Though the market is currently dominated by insurance providers…

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Indian Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority announces stricter sales site guidelines

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) in India has announced that it is issuing tighter guidelines for policy comparison sites that are also selling insurance products for multiple insurers through an affiliate relationship. Third party affiliate insurance comparison websites earn a commission from the associated insurance company every time they sell a product through their site. Until now, there have been neither any regulations as to the allowable size of the commission, nor any pre-requisites regarding the candidacy to enter into the business of an insurance affiliate website. The…

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Indian consumers will soon have access to Cigna health insurance

Health insurance company, Cigna, has announced that it has completed a joint venture deal that will allow it to sell health insurance products in the fastest growing market, in India. In India, 85 percent of all people do not have health insurance. The joint venture which will bring Cigna into this marketplace will be with a company called TTK Group, which is better known for appliances such as its Prestige brand pressure cookers, but which also manufactures medical devices and drugs, and administers insurance policies. This announcement comes at a…

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India’s Finance Ministry requests public sector general insurance companies to reduce expense ratio

The Finance Ministry in India has requested that the public sector insurance companies drop their expense ratio and reduce their management expenses in order to achieve better profits. The ministry has examined the performance of the four PSU insurers and, according to official sources, the motor and health insurance areas are those that continue to present a concern. The goal is to make the expense ratio more competitive. Moreover, these companies have already been told that it will be important to reduce their management expenses. The four PSU insurance companies…

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