Letters: Insurance assurance

The report "Top 50 districts have seven life insurance agents for 1,000 people" (November 29) presents a depressing position for the bottom 120 districts that had an average of 0.7 agent licences for 1,000 people. It is good that such data are being compiled since it would go a long way towards achieving "financial inclusion" through the financial services industry, of which the life insurance business is a prominent part. Even more effective than this criterion will be the one that shows how many villages with a population of more than 1,000 do not have even a single life insurance agent. The state-owned life insurer used to compile such data even in the 1960s. During their mandatory annual branch inspection, inspection officers had to scrutinise the centre-wise register of agents the branch was maintaining, and report how many villages with a population of more than 1,000 did not have an agent. The vast organisation that it had built over the decades was because of such a determined drive. Compiling of such data by life insurers, both public and private, would show whether the insurance industry has improved on its score over the years or not.

S Subramanyan, Navi Mumbai

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