Insurance sector in India today saw two new players commence operations. Religare Health Insurance today commenced operations as a standalone health insurance player, while non-banking financial company Magma Fincorp entered general insurance business through a a joint venture with HDI Gerling, a leading German insurer.
Magma HDI General Insurance (MHDI) will be the new entity in the joint venture. The launch of the general insurance business would enable Magma to offer a comprehensive end to end solution to its customers by financing the purchase of cars, tractors, commercial vehicles or construction equipment as well as providing insurance to the asset purchased.
Sanjay Chamria, Chairman of MHDI said that the new company will leverage the strengths of the JV Partners to offer customized services to its customers in India. "Over 80 per cent of Magma's 240 branches are located in the semi-urban and rural areas, which are generally underserved markets for insurance products. MHDI will remain consistently focused on servicing the needs of the customers located in such markets thereby furthering the cause of financial inclusion," he added.
Swaraj Krishnan, CEO of Magma HDI added the company will launch operations in 39 locations in the first year and would recruit about 500 people. MHDI will now be the first private general insurance company to be Headquartered in Eastern India.
On the health front, Religare Health announced the formal launch of operations. Having initiated operations this July, Religare Health Insurance has made progress over the past 3 months, and is already operating out of 134 centers, servicing more than 34,000 lives. It has already collected Rs 14 crore premium in the last three months.
The shareholders of Religare Health Insurance comprise of Religare Enterprises Limited, Union Bank of India and Corporation Bank. The health insurance firm would use the distribution network of the banks for its products.
Though the firm has presently only one product, 'Care', for group and retail customers, Anuj Gulati, MD & CEO of Religare Health Insurance informed that they would launch products for critical illness, overseas student travel medical insurance in the future. Gulati added that a policy for HIV/AIDS patients is also being actively worked upon.
Their offering 'Care' offers a sum assured up to Rs.60 lacs, to suit the customized requirements of every consumer segment; and even the option of availing specialized treatment anywhere in the world for sum assured over and above Rs 50 lakhs. 'Care' comes bundled with an annual health check-up facility, automatic recharge of sum insured in case claims exhaust coverage and no claim-based loading on premiums.
It has a lifelong renewability and even a daily allowance to cover incidental expenses during hospitalization.The company has a network of 1800 hospitals across India to choose from, for customers and will handle claims in-house without any assistance of third party administrators.
