Chidambaram stresses on reforms in insurance and pension sectors

Kolkata, Dec 6 (UNI) Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram today underscored the need for reform in insurance and pension sectors, lamenting that the process had suffered for the past 30 months owing to lack of consensus among political parties.

Addressing a function to mark the unveiling of ''Varishta Mediclaim for Senior Citizens,'' a scheme of National Insurance Co Ltd by President A P J Abdul Kalam here, the Finance Minister said, '' Progress of reformation has been slow for the past two-and-half-year due to lack of consensus among the political parties. '' He said the country had to complete the unfinsihed task of reformation in the financial sector in general and particularly in insurance and pension sectors.

''Still a huge task is left to complete the mission of reform,'' he said adding the country's insurance sector was still in a nascent stage as a vast majority of people remained ''uninsured''.

Citing data, Mr Chidambaram said, ''out of 1.1 billion people, only four crore are covered under the non-life insurance sector which is basically very small compared to other parts of the globe.

There is vast scope to tap this sector and business can boom if the percentage is enhanced.'' He said India has covered only 0.65 per cent GDP in non-life insurance sector against the world's 3.43. He said investment in banking was for short term but the country was lagging behind in long term sector investment such as in the insurance sector.

Mr Chidambaram stressed the need for growth in the insurance sector and urged political parties to ensure that the government could go ahead with reformation.

Lauding the National Insurance Company Limited for entering 101 year of business, Mr Chidambaram said though the company was the oldest in the country, its achievements were remarkable.

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