The Hindu Business Line : More on mobiles, less for insurance

MORE money is being spent in India on cellular phones than on paying premiums to insurance companies! Just one of the strange things that make life so challenging for insurers, says Mr Deepak Satwalkar, CEO of HDFC Standard Life.

He also has a few other facts up his sleeve - all of which were added together to tell an engaging tale at Friday's insurance seminar in Kolkata.

Consider these: If you want to get Rs 12,000 per month as annuity and you start saving at 35, your annual saving rate has to be Rs 25,000 per annum.

The average life expectancy of an Indian will be 80 years by 2020. The normal Indian will live 20 years beyond his or her earning life.

In India, there are 111 million people in the age group of 0-4 years. This is expected to rise to 121 million by 2013 - a rise of less than 10 per cent.

There are 97 million casual/contract workers and 166 million self-employed people outside the scope of the current system of pension.

But coming back to the cell-phone story, Mr Satwalkar mentioned that while Indians spent as much as Rs 10,000 crore to go mobile, only Rs 8,000 crore were spent in the first seven months to meet life insurance and pension commitments.

" ... Just gives you an idea of the priorities of the new Indian. Thrift is hard in a credit culture that promises to take the waiting out of wanting," he concluded.

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