Why are pension and health care schemes not very popular in India?
Awareness is a very important factor for the success of any scheme. Pension fund is a new concept in India. Traditionally, Indian society has been joint family-driven. So, the need for pension funds has not been felt. Though pension funds are not around, there are schemes such as provident funds with similar benefits. I feel there is tremendous scope for pension schemes in India. The performance of LIC’s pension products proves this. Do you plan to launch pension funds? Even now we have pension plans. Our Jeevan Suraksha is a pension plan. It was launched in 1996-97. We are working at similar plans to suit everybody’s needs. What are the new products you are planning to launch? Currently, we are designing unit-linked and unbundled products. We have just launched four plans in the market. Last year we launched our Bima Nivas plan, which was a huge success. Our premium target for the year is Rs 350 crores, but we are likely to touch the Rs 500 crore-mark in premium income. How do you ass
