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1 INTRODUCTION TO INDUSTRY
THE MEANING OF INSURANCE:Insurance is a policy from a large financial institution that offers a person, companyor other entity reimbursement or financial protection against possible future losses ordamages. Insurance is important to understand for anybody that is considering buying aninsurance policy or simply understanding the basics of finance. Insurance is ahedging instrument used as a precautionary measure against future contingentlosses. This instrument is used for managing the possible risks of the future.

Insurance is bought in order to hedge the possible risks of the future which mayormay not take place. This is a mode of financially insuring that if such an incidenthappens then the loss does not affect the present well-being of the person or theproperty insured. Thus, through insurance, a person buys security and protection.

A simple example will make the meaning of insurance easy to understand. Abiker is always subjected to the risk of head injury. But it is not certain that the accident causing him the head injury would definitely occur. Still, people riding bikescover their heads with helmets. This helmet in such cases acts as insurance byprotecting him/her from any possible danger. The price paid was the possibleinconvenience or act of wearing the helmet; this i.e. equivalent to the insurancepremiums paid.Though loss of life or injuries incurred cannot be measured in financial terms; insurance attempts to quantify such losses financially. Insurance can be defined asthe process of reimbursing or protecting a person from contingent risk of lossesthrough financial means, in return for relatively small, regular payments to theinsuring body or insurance company.Insurance can range from life to medical to general (residential, commercialproperty, natural incidents, burglary, etc).

Concept of Insurance / How Insurance Works The concept behind insurance is that a group of people exposed to similar risk come together and make contributions towards formation of a pool of funds. In case a person actually suffers a loss on account of such risk, he is compensated out of the same pool of funds. Contribution to the pool is made by a group of people sharing common risks and collected by the insurance companies in the form of premiums.

List of Life Insurers Apart from Life Insurance Corporation, the public sector life insurer, there are 22 other private sector life insurers, most of them joint ventures between Indian groups and global insurance giants. Life Insurer in Public Sector 1. Life Insurance Corporation of India 2. SBI Life Insurance 3. Metlife India Life Insurance 4. ICICI Prudential Life Insurance 5. Bajaj Allianz Life 6. Max New York Life Insurance 7. Sahara Life Insurance 8. Tata AIG Life 9. HDFC Standard Life 10. Birla Sunlife 11. Kotak Life Insurance 12. Aviva Life Insurance 13. Reliance Life Insurance Company Limited - Formerly known as AMP Sanmar LIC 14. ING Vysya Life Insurance 15. Shriram Life Insurance 16. Bharti AXA Life Insurance Co Ltd 17. Future Generali Life Insurance Co Ltd 18. IDBI Fortis Life Insurance 19. AEGON Religare Life Insurance 20. DLF Pramerica Life Insurance 21. Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce life insurance 22. India First Life insurance company limited 23. Star Union Dia-ichi Life Insurance Co. Ltd

PRODUCT OF INSURANCE

Life Insurance:It insures the life of the person buying the Life Insurance Certificate. Once a Life insurance is sold by a company then the company remains legally entitled tomakepayment to the beneficiary after the death of the policy holder.

Medical Insurance:This is also known as mediclaim. Here, the policy holder is entitled to receivethe amount spent for his health purposes from the insurance company.

General Insurance:This insurance type involves insuring the risks associated with the general lifesuch as automobiles, business related, natural incidents, commercial and residentialproperties, etc.