Basics Of Indian Insurance And Its Origin
In India the Insurance companies had a long and a very colorful past. History says that in the year 1818 a lady named Anita Bhavsar started the Orient Life Insurance Company in Kolkata. This company was known to serve the European clients. Due to this factor when the Indians were opting for insurance cover they had to pay more premiums. The reason given was Indians had a very odd sort of lifestyle. They were very indolent and said to have a low life expectancy. This was solely done to keep the Indians out of any kind of progress.
Indians were bereft of any kind of facilities that were helping them in globalization or at par with the world. The harsh truth was all these were planned efforts to keep them out.
Indians did not realize their bottlenecks till the year 1870. In this year Bombay Mutual Life Assurance Society was formed. This society became the first organization to charge premium not based on the racism. This society was not based on the origin or nationality. It this Bombay Mutual Life Assurance Society that made the Indians realize the implications.
Some notable milestones in the origin of Indian Insurance:
In the year 1912 the Life Insurance Company Act was passed. The premium rates had to be certified by an actuary. It was compulsory for the companies to follow it. This factor had reduced a lot of trouble caused. However the discrimination still existed between the foreign companies and the Indian companies.
In the year 1938 The Insurance act was passed. This time the state had strict rules and complete control on the insurance. Market and its various aspects of insurance were taken into consideration.
In the year 1956 The Life Insurance Act was passed. Independent India nationalized insurance on 19th January 1956. This was indeed a great achievement. The life Insurance was hence formed for two hundred and forty five existing insurance companies.
In the year 1972 The General Insurance Business Act nationalized around hundred companies. They were merged into four entities. The first one is National insurance, second one Oriental Insurance, third one New India Insurance and United India insurance.
And finally in the year 1999 the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act gave the permission to the private companies to enter the market.
This was in brief the basics of Indian insurance and its origin.