COMPARITIVE STUDY OF LIFE INSURANCE CORPORATION AND BAJAJ ALLIANZ

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INTRODUCTION

Life has always been an uncertain thing. To be secure against unpleasant possibilities always requires the utmost resourcefulness and foresight on the part of man. To pray or to pay for protection is the spirit of the humanity. Man has been accustomed to pray God for protection and security from time immemorial. In modern days Insurance Companies want him to pay for protection and security. The insurance man says "God helps those who help themselves"; probably he is correct.

The business of insurance is related to the protection of the economic values of assets. Every Asset has a value. The asset would have been created through the efforts of the owner. The asset is valuable to the owner, because he expects to get some benefit from it. The benefit may be an income or something else. It is a benefit because it meets some of his needs. In the case of a factory or a cow, the product generated by is sold and income generated. In the case of a motor car, it provides comfort and convenience in transportation. There is no direct income.


PRACTICE OF INSURANCE IN INDIA: 1818-1956

It is claimed that insurance was practiced in India even in Vedic times in one form or the other. The Sanskrit term "Yogakshema" in the Rigveda meant some kind of insurance, which was practiced by the Aryans in India nearly 3000 years ago. During the Mughal period insurance took firm roots. There are even references to the cover against war risks. Losses due to the passage of royal troops through farms were compensated by the State as a gesture of goodwill.


THE BIRTH OF INDIAN INSURERS

With the advent of the 20th century, the glorious renaissance of swadeshi days dawned. At the same time, well- to do Indians realized the potentiality of Indian Insurance business. The Swadeshi movement of 1905-1907 gave rise to more insurance companies. The United India Madras, National Indian and National Insurance in Calcutta and the Co-operative Assurance at Lahore were established in 1906. In 1907, Hindustan Co-operative Insurance Company took its birth in one of the rooms of the Jorasanko House of the great poet Rabindranath Tagore, in Calcutta. The Indian Mercantile (1907) was started in Bombay, General Assurance (1908) at Ajmer and the Swadeshi Life (Later Bombay Life) in Bombay in 1908.

INSURANCE ACT, 1938

The Insurance Act, 1938, was the first comprehensive legislation governing not only life but also non- life branches of insurance to provide strict state control over insurance business. In sub- sections to dealt with provident companies, mutual offices and co-operative societies as well.