23 Dec 2011|Noida | Amity University Campus, Sector 125, Noida
Amity School of Insurance, Banking & Actuarial Science organises Seminar on “FINANCIAL INCLUSION FOR INCLUSIVE GROWTH: THE ROAD AHEAD”
Amity School of Insurance, Banking & Actuarial Science (ASIBAS) conducted a Seminar on “FINANCIAL INCLUSION FOR INCLUSIVE GROWTH: THE ROAD AHEAD” at Amity University Campus, Sector 125, Noida.
Mr. Anil Swarup, IAS, Additional Secretary & Director General, Ministry of Labor & Employment, Govt. of India and Chief Guest during the occasion very eloquently outlined how he was familiarized with the field of Insurance when took over as the Director General of Ministry of Labor and Employment and was given the task to draft a Health Insurance Aid for the poorest of the poor in the country, despite having no prior knowledge of the domain. Dwelling on how the scheme was drafted and its remarkable success, Mr. Swarup said, “ while preparing the Scheme we, at the Ministry, looked very closely at the beneficiary who was to be benefited from the scheme and this beneficiary was poor, by and large illiterate and in many cases, a migrant. As per the characteristics of the target group, the scheme was made cashless, paperless in the form of a bio- metric Smart Card and portble which means the benefit of the scheme could be availed throughout the country.” Mr. Swarup further revealed, “ Of more than 25 million Smart Card which have been issued, not a Single Smart Card has been issued to the wrong person. The scheme has been totally different from any other scheme that has been implemented in the country. It gives poorest of the poor a choice to get treated in more than 8, 500 empanelled Public and Private sector hospitals across the country. Everyday over 75, 000 families are covered in rural areas on daily basis under the Scheme. This is perhaps the only Government scheme where the consumer satisfaction rating is between 70- 90%.” Highlighting the usefulness of Smart Cards, Mr. Swarup further said, “Smart Card has the potential to make the civic service delivery mechanism in the country transparent. If this Smart Card is used for Public Distribution System, the country will save 20, 000 crores of rupees every year. The beneficiaries are not tied down to particular shop and can go anywhere, claim his identity and buy the stuff. The Indian Government spends almost Rs. 8, 000 per child and if this cash is put in the chip of the Smart card which can be used in any empanelled school or University, the child can only use the cash for education and on nothing else. My hope is that in every domain, very soon, Smart Cards will be used whether it is Banking, Fertilizer Entitlement or Insurance”. He wished seminar a great success and called upon the students to avail the maximum benefit out of the deliberations.
Dr. Ashok K Chauhan- Founder President, Amity Group highlighted the momentous achievements of ASIBAS and its students, who even before stepping outside the portals of the college bag lucrative job offers and are making a mark in the Insurance and Banking Sectors.
Welcoming the august speakers and highlighting the importance of the theme of the Seminar, Prof. R R Grover- Director, Amity School of Insurance, Banking & Actuarial Science (ASIBAS) said, “ Financial Inclusion denotes delivery of banking and other financial services at an affordable cost to the vast section of disadvantaged and low income groups. In today’s era, micro- inclusion has become a buzzword of every activity, it is a source through which economy can develop.The Eleventh Five Year Plan envisions Micro- inclusion as the key objectives for the growth. The rapid growth of IT and mobile technology services have made it possible to provide these services to the beneficiaries at a very cost effective and extensive manner throughout the country.” Prof. Grover, further, shared that ASIBAS has the unique distinction of offering Banking and Insurance modules in its courses, which motivated the institute to enlighten the students with the requirements of the society and their own role in the process of financial inclusion through a Seminar wherein discussions and deliberations by specialists from different sectors will benefit the students manifold.
Sharing his thoughts with the students, Mr. Hemant Bhargava, Executive Director, Micro insurance, LIC of India said, “Insurance industry has been continuously growing except this year when we had a sluggish growth but otherwise, Insurance Industry, today, as Life Insurance Industry has almost 125000 crores premium size and Non- Life Insurance Industry has almost 47, 000 crores size and over the last three years have grown by 50%.When we look at the numbers we have more than 5 crores policies sold every year. The kind of growth Insurance Industry has been witnessing is tremendous but when we look at the population which has been covered, it’s a huge mass of people who have been left uncovered so far. We have almost 60% of people who have some amount of money which they can afford to set aside to be given for Insurance covers. They have not been given any Insurance policy which is affordable to them, easy to understand and also within their reach and this is the population which LIC has tried to cater through micro- insurance.” Mr. Bhargava informed students that there is lot of scope in Insurance industry and they should prepare themselves on the lines of the industry requirements to scale up their employability factor.
During the day long Seminar, a wide array of topics were discussed including “RBI and Financial Inclusion” by Mr. K.C. Gupta, Asstt. General Manager, Reserve Bank of India, “Banks and Financial Inclusion” by Mr. D.S. Tripathi, General Manager, Union Bank of India, “Role of Micro Insurance in Financial Inclusion” by Dr. Iddo Drror, Director, Micro Insurance Academy, “Life Insurance Companies in Financial Inclusion” by Mr. Anil Srivastava, Regional Manager, Micro Insurance, LIC of India, “General Insurance companies in Financial Inclusion” by Mr. U.V Singh, Chief Manager, National Insurance Corporation and others.