General Awareness: Insurance part 2 (very imp) for UIIC AO

IRDA – Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority

IRDA is a statutory body which regulates the Insurance Industry in India. It was set up in 2000 and was initially known as Insurance Regulatory Authority and subsequently renamed as Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority. The main objective of setting up IRDA was to promote market efficiency and ensure consumer protection.

It was constituted by a Parliament of India act called Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999 and duly passed by the Government of India. 

The Headquarters of IRDA is located at Hyderabad and the members of IRDA are appointed by Government of India.

Composition of Authority of IRDA

The Authority is a ten member team of 

• A Chairman and every other whole-time member – 5 years (Maximum age is 60 years). 
• Five whole-time members (Maximum age is 62 years).
• Four part-time members (not more than 5 years)

The current Chairman of IRDA is Mr.T.S.Vijayan.

Duties and Responsibilities of IRDA

• To regulate, promote and ensure orderly growth of the insurance business and re-insurance business.
• To issue a certificate of registration and powers to renew, modify, withdraw, suspend or cancel the registration.
• Protection of the interests of the policy holders.
• To specify qualifications, code of conduct and practical training for intermediaries.
• To specify the code of conduct for surveyors and loss assessors.
• To promote the efficiency in the conduct of insurance business.
• To promote and regulate the organizations connected with the insurance and re-insurance business.
• Levying fees and other charges for carrying out the purposes of this Act.
• To conduct enquiries and investigations for insurers, intermediaries, insurance intermediaries and other organizations connected with the insurance business.
• To control and regulate the rates, advantages, terms and conditions that may be offered by insurers.
• To specify the form and manner in which books of account shall be maintained.
• To regulate the investment of funds by insurance companies.
  To regulate the maintenance of margin of solvency.
• Adjudication of disputes between insurers and intermediaries and supervising the functioning of the Tariff Advisory Committee.
• To specify the percentage of premium income of the insurer to finance schemes.
• To specify the percentage of life insurance business and general insurance business to be undertaken by the insurer in the rural or social sector.

Functions of IRDA

• Ensure orderly growth of Insurance industry.
• Protection of interest of policy holders.
• Issue consumer protection guidelines to insurance companies.
• Grant, modify, and suspend license for insurance companies.
• Lay down procedure for accounting policies to be adopted by the Insurance companies.
• Inspect and audit of Insurance companies and other related agencies.
• Regulation of capital adequacy, solvency, and prudential requirements of Insurance business.
• Regulation of product development and their pricing including free pricing of products.
• Promote and regular self regulating organizations in the insurance industry.
• Re-insurance limit monitoring.
• Monitor investments.
• Vetting of accounting standards, transparency requirements, in reporting.
• Ensure the health of the industry by preventing sickness through appropriate action.
• Publish information about the industry.
• Prescribe qualification and training needs of agent.
• Monitor the charges for various services by Insurance companies.
• Regulating intermediaries like;
  Agents, Brokers, Surveyors, TPA Health services.

Computer Note for SBI clerk/UIIC/SBI PO and all other exams

The most important and neglected subject of every major exam. Last year many students were not able to qualify the final cut off because of this subject. This shows how important each and every subject is. So here we are providing basic computer notes which are very important for every banking exam

DATA REPRESENTATION - 

Memory Units:

4 bit = 1 nibble

8 bit = 1 byte

1024 B = 1 KB (Kilo Byte)

1024 KB = 1 MB (Mega Byte)

1024 MB = 1 GB (Giga Byte)

1024 GB = 1 TB (Tera Byte)

1024 TB = 1 PB (Peta Byte)

1024 PB = 1 XB (Exa Byte)

1024 XB = 1 ZB (Zeta Byte)

1024 ZB = 1 YB (Yota Byte)

bit < Byte < KB < MB < GB < TB < PB < XB < ZB < YB

• bit (b)
• Byte (B)

Mbps – mega bits per sec.

MBps – mega Bytes per sec.

• The information you put into the computer is called Data
• Information of a computer is stored as Digital Data
• A number system defines a set of values that is used to represent Quantity
• In which number system, the modern computers are operated?

Binary Number System

• Name the most significant bit, which represent 1 and 0 for a positive number and negative number, respectively.

Sign Bit

• Which coding scheme represents data in a binary form in the computer system? ASCII, EBCDIC and Unicode are the most commonly used codes under this scheme.

Binary Coding Scheme

• EBCDIC is a 8-Bit code with 256 different representations of characters. It is mainly used in mainframe computers.
• EBCDIC stands for Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
• In the Hexadecimal Number System each number represents a power of 16. To represent the decimal numbers, this system uses numbers from 0 to 9 and characters from A to F to represent numbers 10-15, respectively. It is commonly used as a shortcut notation for groups of four binary digits
• BCD is a method that represents the decimal digits with the help of binary digits. It takes advantage that one decimal numeral can be represented by 4-bit pattern. BCD stands for Binary Coded Decimal
• This coding system is used to represent the interval storage area of the computers. In this system, every character is represented by a combination of bits. Binary Coding System
• The Base or Radix of the decimal number system is 10
• The arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) performed on the binary numbers is called Binary Arithmetic
• What is the standard code the computer industry created to represent characters? American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII)
• ASCII is a code used for standardizing the storage and transfer of information amongst various computing devices.
• It is required for representing more than 64 characters. At present, the mostly used coding systems are ASCII and EBCDIC
• Which code is also known as Reflected Code? Gray Code
• The 7-bit ASCII code is widely used for Two (0 or 1)
• In the binary language, each letter of the alphabet, each number and each special character is made up of a unique combination of Eight Bits.

GENERATIONS OF COMPUTER

• Which was the first general purpose computer, designed to handle both numeric and textual information? Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC) (1951)

First Generation (1940-1956) Vacuum Tubes:

• The first computers used vacuum tubes for circuitry and magnetic drums for memory, and were often enormous, taking up entire rooms.
• The UNIVAC and ENIAC computers are examples of first-generation computing devices. 
• In first generation of computer, this operating system allowed only one program to run at a time and a number of input jobs are grouped for processing. It is known as Batch Processing.

Second Generation (1956-1963) Transistors:

• Transistors replaced vacuum tubes and ushered in the second generation of computers.

Third Generation (1964-1971) Integrated Circuits:

• The development of the integrated circuit was the hallmark of the third generation of computers. Transistors were miniaturized and placed on silicon chips, called semiconductors, which drastically increased the speed and efficiency of computers.

Fourth Generation (1971-Present) Microprocessors:

• The microprocessor brought the fourth generation of computers, as thousands of integrated circuits were built onto a single silicon chip.
• What in the first generation filled an entire room could now fit in the palm of the hand
• Fourth generation computers also saw the development of GUIs, the mouse and handheld devices

Fifth Generation (Present and Beyond) Artificial Intelligence:

• Fifth generation computing devices, based on artificial intelligence, are still in development, though there are some applications, such as voice recognition, that are being used today.
• In 1981 IBM introduced its first computer for the home user, and in 1984 Apple introduced the Macintosh.

History of Insurance in India (v imp for UIIC AO)

History of Insurance in India

Insurance since Ancient times

In India, Insurance has well established history of more than thousand years. In Rigveda, there is a concept called Yogakshema, which means prosperity, well being and security of people. Also Insurance was mentioned in Manusmrithi, Dharmashastra and Arthashastra. In those times insurance refers to pooling of resources that could be re-distributed in times of natural calamities such as fire, floods, epidemics and famine. This was probably a pre-cursor to modern day insurance.

Modern Day Insurance

The modern form of Life Insurance came to India from England in the year 1818. Oriental Life Insurance Company started by Europeans in Calcutta was the first life insurance company on Indian Soil.

The insurance companies established during that period were brought up with the purpose of looking after the needs of European community and Indian natives were not being insured by these companies. However, later with the efforts of eminent people like Babu Muttylal Seal, the foreign life insurance companies started insuring Indian lives. But Indian lives were being treated as sub-standard lives and heavy extra premiums were being charged on them.

Bombay Mutual Life Assurance Society heralded the birth of first Indian life insurance company in the year 1870, and covered Indian lives at normal rates. Bharat Insurance Company (1896) was also one of such companies inspired by nationalism. The Swadeshi movement of 1905-1907 gave rise to more insurance companies such as The United India in Madras, National Indian and National Insurance in Calcutta and the Co-operative Assurance at Lahore.

Life Insurance Companies Act, 1912

In the year 1912, the Life Insurance Companies Act, and the Provident Fund Act were passed. The Life Insurance Companies Act, 1912 made it necessary that the premium rate tables and periodical valuations of companies should be certified by an actuary. But the Act discriminated between foreign and Indian companies on many accounts, putting the Indian companies at a disadvantage.

Insurance Act 1938

From 44 companies with total business-in-force as Rs.22.44 Crores, it rose to 176 companies with total business-in-force as Rs.298 Crores in 1938. With a view to protect the interests of the Indian Insurance companies, the earlier legislation was amended with the enactment of the Insurance Act 1938, which consists comprehensive provisions for effective control over the activities of insurers or insurance organizations.

The Insurance Act 1938 was the first legislation governing the life insurance and non-life insurance and to provide strict state control over insurance business.

Birth of Life Insurance Corporation of India

On 19th of January, 1956, that life insurance in India was nationalized. About 154 Indian insurance companies, 16 non-Indian companies and 75 provident were operating in India at the time of nationalization. Nationalization was accomplished in two stages; initially the management of the companies was taken over by means of an Ordinance, and later, the ownership too by means of a comprehensive bill.

The Parliament of India passed the Life Insurance Corporation Act on June 1956, and the Life Insurance Corporation of India was created on September 1956, with the objective of spreading life insurance much more widely and in particular to the rural areas with a view to reach all insurable persons in the country, providing them adequate financial cover at a reasonable cost.

The LIC had monopoly till the late 90s when the Insurance sector was reopened to the private sector.

History of General (non-life) Insurance

The history of general insurance dates back to the Industrial Revolution in the west during the 17th century. General Insurance in India has its roots in the establishment of Triton Insurance Company Ltd. at Kolkata in the year 1850 by the Britishers. In 1907, the Indian Mercantile Insurance Ltd. was established and was the first company to transact all classes of general insurance business.

In 1957, General Insurance Council (GIC), a wing of the Insurance Associaton of India was established The General Insurance Council framed a code of conduct for ensuring fair conduct and sound business practices across Non-Life or General insurance sector.

In 1968, the Insurance Act was amended to regulate investments and set minimum solvency margins. The Tariff Advisory Committee was also established in the same year.

With the passing of the General Insurance Business (Nationalization) Act in 1972, general insurance business was nationalized. A total of 107 insurers were amalgamated and grouped into four companies namely National Insurance Company Ltd. at Kolkata, the New India Assurance Company Ltd. at Mumbai, the Oriental Insurance Company Ltd at New Delhi and the United India Insurance Company Ltd at Chennai.

Malhotra Committee

The Government set up a committee in 1993 under the chairmanship of R.N. Malhotra, former Governor of RBI (Reserve Bank of India), to propose recommendations for initiation and implementation of reforms in the Indian insurance sector. The objective of setting up this committee was to complement the pace of reforms initiated in the financial sector.

The aforesaid committee submitted its report in 1994 wherein it was recommended that the private sector be permitted to enter the Indian insurance sector. It also recommended the participation of foreign companies by allowing them to enter into an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) by floating Indian companies, preferably a joint venture with Indian partners.

Birth of IRDA

Following the recommendations of the Malhotra Committee report, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) Act, in 1999 was passed by the Indian Parliament.

The IRDA opened up the Indian insurance market in August 2000 by inviting application for registration proposals. Foreign companies were allowed entry into Indian insurance sector with an upper ceiling on ownership of up to 26% participation. The IRDA has been granted the powers to frame regulations under Section 114A of the Insurance Act, 1938.

From 2000 onwards, IRDA has framed various regulations for carrying on insurance business to protection of Indian policyholders’ interests including the registration of Life & Non-Life (General) Insurance companies.

Insurance – a thriving sector

At present there are 28 general insurance companies including the ECGC and Agriculture Insurance Corporation of India and 24 life insurance companies operating in the country.
The insurance sector is a massive one and is thriving at a speedy rate of 15-20%. Together with banking services, insurance services add about 7% to the country’s GDP. A well-developed and evolved insurance sector is a boon for economic development as it provides long- term funds for infrastructure development at the same time strengthening the risk taking ability of the country.