Life insurance can be defined as a contract between an insurance policyholder and an insurance company, where the insurer promises to pay a sum of money in return for premiums on the death of an insured or after a specified period of time. While life insurance covers the life of the individual, general insurance provides cover to other aspects and assets in the life of the individual, for example, health, car, travel, home, etc.
Know, how life insurance started in India, what is the history of LIfe Insurance – in Hindi
How life insurance started in India? (Origin of Life Insurance in India)
pre independenceLife insurance in its modern form came to India from England in the year 1818. The Oriental Life Insurance Company, started by Europeans in Calcutta, was the first life insurance company in India.
Reason for establishment: All the insurance companies established during that period were brought in with the aim of catering to the needs of the European community and Indian natives were not being insured by these companies.
First insurance for Indians: Babu Muttilal Seal, foreign life insurance companies started insuring the lives of Indians. But the Indian life was considered to be a poor life and a heavy extra premium was being imposed on them.
Beginning of insurance companies based on nationalism: India Insurance Company (1896) was also one of such companies inspired by nationalism. The Swadeshi movement of 1905-1907 gave birth to more insurance companies. United India in Madras, National Indian and National Insurance in Calcutta and Co-operative Assurance in Lahore were established in 1906. In the year 1907, the Hindustan Co-operative Insurance Company started in Calcutta in a room at Jorasanko,
the home of the great poet Rabindranath Tagore. Indian Mercantile, General Assurance and Swadeshi Life (later Bombay Life) were some of the companies established during this period.