Insurance sector: Reforms & regulations..!!

It was the overall economic reforms of 1991 in India which paved the way for reforms in Insurance sector also. That was the time when State monopoly was taking its last breath and virtually the License Raj was on a death bed. Openness came across the sector and many sectors like Banking, Infrastructure , Telecom etc. were opened up. However this openness was not a complete one. There were still some retention of FDI caps in some sensitive sectors and Insurance sector is one of them. It may be recalled that while the reforms in various sectors of the economy were welcomed, there was considerable debate on the need for reforms in Insurance industry. Fiduciary obligations between Insurers and the insured was a big issue but once the legislation was put through, the actual process of inducting private players into the market had gone off smoothly. Insurance sector is perhaps the only sector in this country where the transition from State monopoly to free market has been hassle free. To wind up the things, one can say that India has maintained a well balance between reforms and regulations and this is the gist of the present book.