Abstract:
India boasts of 16% of the world population, but has only 1.68% of the world insurance market as at 2006 (Source: World Insurance Report by Capgemeni). Around 21% of insurable population of India is covered by the all twenty and odd life insurance companies and there is a mine of opportunity untapped in the rural areas. Lack of entrepreneurial skills on the part of insurance distributors, particularly agents, is one of the causes resulting in deprivation of life insurance to the rural people and thus they are not part of inclusive growth. The needs of the customers are not analyzed before canvassing life insurance and hence insurance is almost always sold and never bought. In order to analyze the insurance needs and the canvassing pattern, a survey is conducted and responses are gathered from 500 customers and 200 agents of Bangalore and Kolar rural districts. The data is tabulated and by applying SPSS package, necessary statistical tests are conducted to analyze the trends. The results indicate that all the rural credit is not insured even though the borrowers have inclination to cover the loans. The retirement needs of the rural people are seldom addressed by the insurance agents and the canvassing of policies was more determined by high commission yielding policies. The occupational niceties of the daily agricultural laborers have peculiar problems and paying capacities and they are never recognized. Above all the knowledge levels of agents are not perceived in good esteem by the customers resulting in lack of interest in life insurance policies. This also has lead to high attrition rate of agency force (47.67% in 2007-08) in the insurance sector. As the insurers and the agents are using "yesterday's techniques for today's problems", it is highly imperative to take a second look and equip agents with entrepreneurial skills. Innovation and application of new methods is the key for spreading the message of life insurance to the nook and corner of India. An attempt is made in this article as to how entrepreneurial skills can help develop viable alternatives in mass rural coverage and help in inclusive growth of the rural people.
