AGARTALA, January 8 (TIWN): Insurance awareness campaign in Tripura minute to minute programme was organized by collaborative effort of the government of Tripura and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) at Pragna Bhavan, here today.

Addressing in the awareness campaign Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said that insurance is of utmost importance in day to day life. Protection from the risk of loss caused to life, health, property and business can help smoothen out the resulting financial strain. Though the benefits of insurance can be availed of by one and all, the figures of insurance penetration reveal that there is still a large proportion of the population which has not availed of insurance-life or nor-life.

The initiatives of IRDA through greater number of insurers in public and private sector, a large number of insurance intermediaries, a wide range of insurance products and a fairly robust regulatory, supervisory and policyholder protection framework have created the infrastructure for expanding the reach of insurance in the country from the supply side.

In the state of Tripura also we have reasonable insurance infrastructure in the form of around 30 offices each of life and non-life insurers and nearly 7500 life insurance agents. However, the insurance penetration (ration of insurance premium to GDP) in Tripura is 0.63 and below the national average (0.66). This reflects immense potential for insurance growth in the state of Tripura, the minister mentioned.

We have set out a challenging mission of 100 percent financial literacy and 100 percent financial inclusion in the state of Tripura through this collaborative effort. The mission is sought to be achieved through a wide range of activities adopting a multi-institutional approach (Insurers, Life and General insurance councils, banks, financial literacy centers, common service centers etc.) and a multi pronged strategy (Seminars at state and district levels, village adoption, educating students, use of media-print and electronic, distribution of education material etc.) aimed at promoting insurance awareness. “We are confident that once there is a greater understanding of the need and benefits of insurance, that in itself would provide the much needed demand push for achieving greater insurance inclusion considering that the supply infrastructure is already in place. This would all help channelize the hard earned saving of the poor section into the formal channels for savings, like banks and insurance companies,  Chief Minister Manik Sarkar added.     

Minister for Food, Civil supplies and Consumers Affaires Bhanlal Saha, Chief Secretary G. K. Rao and Secretary of Finance Ashutosh Jindal were present in the insurance awareness campaign.