Wikipedia needs our support

Dear Friends,

Everyone of us cannot afford to buy an encyclopedia.

Even if you can afford one, it cannot be updated in realtime.

It is meaningless to posses an outdated encyclopedia in the today's world with fastest developments.

Wikipedia has solved all the above.

More over it has done a job like what the Linux and Free Software Foundation have done with Open Source and 'Copyleft' license against the 'Copyright' license.

Though a few drawbacks are there, one cannot undervalue the services of Wikipedia.

It needs our support as it could not and does not seek the support of the big-business.

From Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales

Google might have close to a million servers. Yahoo has something like 13,000 staff. We have 679 servers and 95 staff.
Wikipedia is the #5 site on the web and serves 450 million different people every month – with billions of page views.
Commerce is fine. Advertising is not evil. But it doesn't belong here. Not in Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is something special. It is like a library or a public park. It is like a temple for the mind. It is a place we can all go to think, to learn, to share our knowledge with others.
When I founded Wikipedia, I could have made it into a for-profit company with advertising banners, but I decided to do something different. We’ve worked hard over the years to keep it lean and tight. We fulfill our mission, and leave waste to others.
If everyone reading this donated ₹100, we would only have to fundraise for one day a year. But not everyone can or will donate. And that's fine. Each year just enough people decide to give.
This year, please consider making a donation of ₹100, ₹200, ₹300 or whatever you can to protect and sustain Wikipedia.
Thanks,
Jimmy Wales
Wikipedia Founder

So, I request you to donate as huge as possible to Wikipedia. 

Click here to donate now.

No private matter

Source: BusinessToday

In a casual chat with a personal banker at her bank branch in early 2009, single mother Krutinica Raghunath first learnt about unit-linked insurance plans, or ULIPs. "You have to pay Rs.45,000 per annum for three years," he explained. Not convinced, especially as she already had a 'money back' policy from Life Insurance Corporation, or LIC, the 45-year-old working professional promised to get back soon. On Raghunath's next visit to the neighbouring bank in a Mumbai suburb, she got an irresistible offer from the young aggressive banker. "You pay Rs.15,000 per annum for three years and get a minimum Rs.60,000 and a maximum of Rs.80,000," he said smoothly, rolling out the stock market statistics of the justgone boom period. The 20-year ULIP he was offering, with a three-year lock-in, also had a death cover of Rs.1.5 lakh. Raghunath's remaining apprehension - the policy application didn't have the bank's name - was dismissed with a "they are our partners" rejoinder.

She fell for the deal hook, line and sinker. Critically, the stock market risk in the plan was not mentioned to her. Soon enough, the markets began to slide, and ULIPs took a major beating. A few weeks ago, forced by rising expenses to make an early exit from her ULIP, Raghunath was horrified to see her investment value at Rs35,000. The young banker had left, and the new one explained: "The stock market is down." Says a helpless Raghunath: "We also work, but we never cheat our clients."

The plight of millions, who bought ULIPs from private sector insurers, is similar to that of Raghunath's. Even a decade after the sector opened up to private companies in 2000, nobody is rejoicing except LIC, which still enjoys 69 per cent market share. Be it customers, agents, the regulator or the promoters of private life insurers, everybody has a sob story to tell.

The opening up of the sector resulted in explosive growth and the entry of global marquee names. But the accompaniments were a high-cost operating model, rampant sales malpractices, low persistency ratio - which reflect the percentage of policies that continue paying premiums - metro-focused business models and products that more resembled mutual funds than insurance. "What mattered was top line and market share," says Rajesh Relan, who

Pvt Life insurers policy issuance dips 35% since April

Source: BusinessStandard

Life insurance premium collection down 20%.

The pension saga continues to take toll on the life insurance industry, particularly for the private players, as the number of policies issued by them is down by nearly 35 per cent, in the current financial year.

During April-October period, the number of policies issued by the largest life insurer, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India, too, declined by eight per cent in the same period. As a result the first year premium collection of the life insurance industry, was down by 20.04 per cent to Rs 55,737.84 crore as against Rs 69,707.92 crore in the corresponding period last year.

According to the data collected by the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (Irda), during 2011-12, life insurance industry sold close to 19.6 million policies, 15.31 per cent lower, compared to 23.14 million policies sold in the same period last year. In the same period, number of policies issued by the private players came down to 4.15 million from 6.34 million.

“Pension plans, which consisted of about 30 per cent of the sales, specially for the private players till the new regulations came into force in September 2010, now account for only 1.7 per cent of sales. Hence, the sales are down,” said S B Mathur, secretary of the Life Insurance Council.

The Council says premiums collected from pension plans dwindled to Rs 600 crore in the first

LIC likely to introduce four new products

Source: BusinessStandard

In view of the stable market scenario at present and sound economic conditions, LIC (Life Insurance Corporation) has planned to introduce at least four more products in the conventional and non-conventional category.

The insurance giant is planning to introduce a new pension system on pilot basis to encourage people from the unorganised sector to voluntarily save for their retirement. The insurance major will not enter banking business but its subsidiary is in process of obtaining banking license.

Speaking to Business Standard, LIC managing director AK Dasgupta said, “It is the right of every investor to enter the market, it is not going down further. The fundamentals of the market are very strong. Market conditions are very favourable for investors if they want to stay for long. They can invest in conventional and non-conventional products, provided they have a proper strategy.”

In view of the favourable conditions, he said, it was the right time for LIC to introduce new products. Without naming the products he said, “There will be at least four products in both the categories and at least one for women, though we have one of the best products for women, Jeevan Bharti, available in the insurance sector.”

When asked if it was a strategy to mitigate the lower premium figures, he said LIC’s premium income was down since

Federal Bank, LIC tie up for e-transfer of maturity proceeds

Source: BusinessLine

Federal Bank has signed an agreement with Life Insurance Corporation of India for paying maturity proceeds of LIC policies.

Hitherto the maturity proceeds were paid by cheques from the respective branch offices of LIC across the country and sent to the beneficiaries one month prior to the due date. Now the proceeds will be credited directly to the beneficiary's account by way of NEFT (National Electronic Funds Transfer) on the due date. This move will be cost effective for LIC and improve the payment system.

Clients need not wait for the cheque to get cleared as the payment is credited directly into the account. Problems such as cheques getting lost in transit, fraudulent encashment, and so on, will not arise.

Federal Bank is among the few banks which have signed agreements with LIC as the bank has systems in place to ensure that NEFT payments from each Divisional Office, numbering to more than 10,000 daily, can be sent smoothly.

Mr Antu Joseph, Deputy General Manager, Federal Bank, said that the alliance will create a win-win situation for all parties involved, giving the customers a hassle-free and convenient claims option.

According to Mr V. K. Kukreja, Executive Director, Finance and Accounts, LIC, “We are excited about the potential of our tie-up with Federal Bank, which is one of the leading banks with a strong focus on asset quality, excellence in banking technology and delivery of service quality.” 

LIC to Invest Rs. 45k Crore in Stock Markets

Source: MedIndia

Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) plans to invest Rs. 45,000 crore of its total investment kitty of Rs. 2.15 lakh crore in the stock markets this year. LIC has already invested Rs. 5000 crore since April. 

DK Mehrotra, acting chairman of India’s biggest insurance company says, “Existing regulations stipulate that 50% of the funds have to be deployed in government securities. That apart, we will invest around Rs. 45,000 crore in equities, slightly more than the Rs. 43,000 crore that we had put in last year.” Mehrotra says LIC booked a profit of close to Rs. 17,000 crore during 2010-11 by selling stocks. The corporation, which invested around Rs. 1,83,000 crore in 2010-11 in other securities earned income to the tune of Rs. 90,000 crore. “We believe the market, after experiencing some volatility, could be stabilising and despite high inflation and rising interest rates, we could add to our portfolio if there is an opportunity,” he observes. 

Mehrotra says premium incomes have been picking up in the last two months. LIC currently has just under a 70% share of the life insurance premium market with private sector players together accounting for the rest. LIC will focus on traditional products that provide assured returns to the policy holders and also commission to the agents. 

“As of now

LIC's operating cost is far lower than the international standard

Source: Business Line

LIC's operating cost was 6.58 per cent of premium in 2009-10 which is far lower than the international standard of 10-15 per cent.

With cost-consciousness and divergent distribution channels, more insurers are likely to make profits and the industry may head for brighter days ahead.

Life insurance sector has witnessed rapid growth in the past decade with private players entering the fray. Assets managed by the insurers have grown manifold in this period, even outpacing the mutual fund industry and the insurers have become a force to reckon with even in stock market. When the life insurance sector was opened up in 2000, the premium collected to the gross domestic product (GDP) was 1.77 per cent; this has risen to 4.6 per cent by 2009-10.

LIC, the only player in the life insurance sector in 1999-2000, collected Rs 34,897 crore that year. According to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), total premium underwritten by the life insurance sector was Rs 2,65,450 crore in 2009-10.

Although the topline of the insurers grew at double-digit till 2009-10, the bottomline of several private insurers are in the red, despite a decade of operation. The total accumulated losses of private life insurers was over Rs 20,143 crore by March 2010.

However, the silver lining is that according to