India's Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority's insurance repositories would be inaugurated on September 16. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram was scheduled to lead the inauguration ceremonies.
The Indian insurance regulator said the repository system was a novel Indian idea. The first of its kind worldwide, the system would provide a place for policyholders to store their policies in electronic form. According to the regulator, insurance firms in India would be able to make agreements with the licensed repositories. So far, five companies had been given licenses to operate as insurance repositories.
Online news website The Brics Post reported that the insurance segment in India was a USD 40 billion market. It had attracted its share of foreign insurance firms. However, 75% of the market is currently held by the Life Insurance Corporation of India, a state-owned firm. The Indian parliament would still debate on the proposal to allow more foreign direct investments (FDI) in the country. The proposal is to increase the insurance cap on FDI from 29% to 49%.
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