The Hindu Business Line : One year life cover an SMS away

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One year life cover an SMS away

Our Bureau

Hyderabad , Nov. 21

Two Aditya Birla group companies — Birla Sun Life Insurance and Idea Cellular, today announced a strategic alliance that seeks to provide a host of new services. The first such is a one-year life insurance cover for Idea mobile subscribers.

Idea subscriber can download a popular dialler tone that costs about Rs 20 from Idea Zindagi portal and get a one-year life insurance coverage for Rs 10,000 free. However, this is available for subscribers in the age group of 18 to 35 years and the scheme is valid for three months from now.

This alliance has been initiated through the launch of the Group Term Insurance Cover where both pre and post-paid subscribers between 18 years and 35 years get free life insurance wherein accidental death gets coverage for one year. However, suicide is not covered in the policy.

The Director of Aditya Birla Management Corporation Ltd and head of Birla Sun Life Insurance, Mr S.K. Mitra, said: "The demographic analysis indicates that the average age of life insured is approximately 30 years. Since the age profile of telecom business customer is young, this will effectively open up new opportunities."

Speaking after country-wide launch of this new initiative, Mr Mitra said: "the Birlas have diverse group companies spread across both in the urban and rural areas of the country. In partnership with other group companies such as Hindalco, Indo-Gulf Fertilisers, Idea among others, we expect to open up new markets, leveraging the infrastructure created over the years."

The Managing Director of Idea cellular Ltd, Mr Sanjeev Aga, said the telecom and financial services sectors are among the fastest growing sectors in the country. The alliance presents to a set of customers a unique insurance offer that seeks to attract younger generation of life insurance through a combination of fun and usefulness.

Providing an insight into the insurance market in the rural parts, Mr Mitra said "though the Rs 10,000 insurance amount might seem small, a profile of new customers shows that a big chunk of them take small insurance amounts. As an insurance provider, we have met the mandatory 15 per cent exposure in the rural market and have crossed the 20 per cent mark. Though this may not mean much from overall business, but there is a big subscriber base."

Barely 6 per cent of the country is now covered through insurance policies and this area is seen to be offering potential for growth.

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