ASSAM / MEGHALAYA: BORDER DISPUTES

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Blood spills at Lampi
Four Khasis perish in the violence that rocked the area

The border dispute between Assam and Meghalaya has been resolved. But before that the Lampi area of Boko town in Lower Assam was rocked with violence in which at least four Khasis lost their lives and more than twenty people, including four police officials, sustained injuries.

This was not a one-off incident. Border disputes exist in several places of Assam mainly at Merapani area of Golaghat district and some places of Sivsagar district in Upper Assam area. The locals in these areas don’t know when violence will erupt. However, the Lampi incident that took place on May 15 grabbed headlines. More than hundred Khasi people armed with sharp weapons attacked the local Nepalis of the Lampi area. Besides, they also attacked a battalion camped in the area. “When the Khasis didn’t surrender after several warnings, the Assam police opened fire to control the situation. The government has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident,’’ says revenue minister of Assam Dr. Bhumidhar Barman, who visited the violence-hit area with state health minister Himanta Biswa Sharma to convince the locals to end violence.

Also, the disputed area of Lampi was discussed with the deputy chief minister of Meghalaya and a few other representatives of the Meghalaya government. Though the hilly area comes under the Boko police station of Kamrup rural district, the Khasis of Meghalaya have been claiming Lampi as integral part of Meghalaya. The Khasis residing in 13 villages of Lampi area always identify themselves with Meghalaya. And they also force the local Nepalis to associate themselves with Meghalaya. Some locals said this creates rift between them.

Concerned with the development in Lampi, the Indian Government reviewed the situation and dispatched a senior officer of the Ministry of Home Affairs to the area to discuss the matter with both the Khasi and Nepali communities. Official sources say Union Home Minister P Chidambaram — scheduled to visit Assam shortly — is likely to discuss the Lampi issue with the government. Other officials who visited the locality included deputy secretary of Ministry of Home Affairs Ajay Kanojia and Deputy Commissioner and Superintendents of Police of both Kamrup rural and west Khasi Hills district. Kanojia said both the governments of Assam and Meghalaya are making efforts to resolve the boundary disputes. Besides, people of both the communities submitted a memorandum to the government. The Khasi people want the government to set up a police outpost of Meghalaya police for their security and safety.

Dr. Barman says: “The decision of the Supreme Court will be regarded as the final regarding the border dispute. Police presence in the area has been increased and two new police posts have been set up in the area to maintain law and order.”

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Tea to follow coffee

Tea manufacturers are really in a sunny spirit with the year 2010. On the one hand, in the global market, according to Tea Board of India, tea exports have increased by more than 24 % in December, 2009 and such growth is extrapolated to continue in 2010 also. On the other hand, tea retailing in India is also showing a sunny spirit. And Indian Tea Association is gung ho to roll out exclusive tea retail stores. But can a tea café create a market when Coffee retailers (read Café Coffee Day) have hogged the limelight? Like ‘Passion - my cup of tea’, there are at least 25 regional exclusive tea retailing brands in this country and till now they have been thriving only in local markets. And most of them missed out big time in going to the national level. So can Indian tea brands create a national chain like CCD or Barista?”

Angshuman Paul

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Orkut’s facelift to save face…

The social networking war in india is intensifying with Google finally breaking its lull over the declining popularity of its social networking site, Orkut and doing a major revamp of its features. Orkut has built upon Google’s core strengths and has added usage of You Tube videos within the Orkut environment without opening new pages, faster upload and download of Picasa pictures. Also, for the first time, G-talk is embedded into Orkut. Apart from the major new additions, other supplementary features like video chat and video testimonials, automatic face detection and varied colours and fonts for text have also been made available. At a time when the second wave of social networking has picked up in India with the explosive growth of Facebook and dedicated work place sites like Twitter and LinkedIn, the name that once became synonymous with the college youth of the country is today struggling to maintain that same growth of new users as in its first two-three years of operations in India. With arch rival Facebook bringing newer features like games, content sharing and publishing analytics, (which make users analyse how many time a link has been shared and the number of comments), et al, the war is set to continue for years to come. This move will prompt rivals in the market to scurry for further additions to their websites as the game is entirely about providing more and more user-friendly services within the architecture of the same website. If you see Facebook and Twitter soon arriving with a host of new features, don’t be amazed because as long as social networking and web technology will keep evolving, the war will continue.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Show your ‘DariyaDilli’!

Show your ‘DariyaDilli’!The marketing fraternity this fortnight was busy with events around children’s day. The country’s largest FM network Big 92.7 FM brought together ace designer Rohit Bal, children of MaxFort school to celebrate the Children’s day with the street children in Delhi. On the occasion, the radio station launched ‘DariyaDilli’ campaign with an aim to make Delhiites pledge and spread the warmth of Delhi to the street children by contributing woolen clothes. Designer Rohit Bal came forward to support the cause. Ashwin Padmanabhan, Station Head – BIG 92.7 FM Delhi said, “The campaign not only provides warm clothes to poor, but also reinforces the idea to the local populace to own and embrace the underprivileged.” Well, the initiative perfectly gels with Big FM’s philosophy of ‘Life Banao’.

Pallavi Srivastava

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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...and the shakers

• The creative duties of the account of JM Financial – a comprehensive financial services group, which was hitherto handled by Grey Worldwide, has been bagged by Creativeland Asia following an account review done by the client.

• As part of a global alignment exercise, Swarovski’s Asia-Pacific media planning and buying account has been awarded to ZenithOptimedia India. The account, which was earlier being jointly handled by ZenithOptimedia and Havas Media’s MPG Group, is estimated to be worth Rs.5-10 crore and was assigned without any pitch. l JWT retained the creative duties of the prestigious account of Pizza Hut in a multi-agency pitch. JWT won against a host of full-service agencies including BBDO, O&M, Saatchi & Saatchi, et al. JWT has been handling the account, which is estimated to be worth Rs.15 crore, for over a decade now.

• In a multi-agency pitch, national carrier, Air India has shortlisted nine agencies viz. Dentsu, Everest Brand Solutions, Euro RSCG, Mudra, Lowe Lintas, Crayons, Grey India, DraftFCB+Ulka, and Saatchi & Saatchi for the final round of its creative pitch.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
TSI exposes b school ranking scamsters Mahesh Peri of Career 360 and Premchand Palety of C fore. - For Complete Sting Operation Video Click Here

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MOKSHA IN MELTDOWN

The Great Economic Slowdown

No other issue has dominated mind and media space in the last one year or so in the manner that the economic crisis has. Almost overnight, non-stop binge partying by Indian companies and consumers collapsed into visions of economic Armageddon, job losses, uncertainity about the future and worse. Real estate companies that were selling dreams faster than spiritual gurus suddenly found that the ground beneath their feet had crumbled. Export industries in far flung cities like Tirupur, Surat and Ludhiana found that export markets had vanished into thin air. Auto companies suddenly found that no one was interested in buying two wheelers, cars and trucks. So strong was the sense of gloom and doom that there was a virtual run on ICICI Bank, which was forced to loudly and vehemently protest that it was liquid and sound. And keeping – and getting – a job started proving damnably difficult. This was clearly a wake up call for millions of Indians. But it does appear at the moment that visions of apocalypse unveiled by the end of 2008 were perhaps a bit exaggerated. Sure, business is yet to completely recover and will perhaps never reach the mad boom days of 2006-2008. But there are unmistakable signs that the economy is back on track and that consumers are once again buying. Oops... did you actually ask whether the recession (sorry, slowdown) had any impact on electoral fortunes in the country? You must be joking!

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Charlie Chaplin is still afresh in people’s mind

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The idea of using a black-and-white background has not occurred to Cherry Blossom alone. Apple came out with an ad featuring black and white video footage and print ads featuring legends like Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso. The ad ended with the image of a young girl opening her eyes (as if)to see the possibilities before her. Everyday, the ad featured a different historic figure, with a small Apple logo and the ‘Think Different’ slogan. The idea was to convey that although the world may perceive these (historical icons) as rebels, troublemakers or crazy – Apple sees them as geniuses, because people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do – just what Apple does in its labs. The campaign, completely in line with Apple’s brand positioning, was a hit.

The idea of using historical icons as ambassadors is catching on fast in India. State Bank of India, the nation’s largest public sector bank, recently launched a print campaign with pictures of its celebrated account holders in the distant past viz. Dadabhai Naoroji, J.R.D. Tata, J.C. Bose, among others. As per the agency, the idea is to establish SBI’s ‘legacy and reputation’ in the mind of modern consumers.

For many, using historical icons as brand ambassadors is the safest bet (besides being economically cheaper), as there are little possibilities of controversies and criticism due to their present deeds. Remember, the quagmire that marketers found themselves in when Salman Khan drove his Land Cruiser over sleeping pavement dwellers in Mumbai or when Sanju Baba landed in jail. Millions of endorsement dollars riding on their backs gave sleepless nights to many. Guess it does pay sometimes to really go ahead and take Apple’s advice: ‘Think Different’!

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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A different beat!

The man whose basmati rice brand, India Gate, has achieved global status talks about his experience...

4Ps B&M: What were the major challenges that you faced while taking your brand India Gate global?
AKM: First of all, the dominance of large retailers like Wal-Mart. Then convincing the customer about the quality of the product posed a challenge, because in the food business, quality assurance is must. But India has a copyright for basmati rice and I started highlighting that aspect in my product and gave all possible details of manufacturing process, location, date, et al, on the packaging.

4Ps B&M: When it comes to USA, the food standard bills are very strong. Did this prove a bottleneck to enter the US market?
AKM: Not only in USA, but in Europe too, food safety rules are very strict. But as I said, we paid attention to our packaging and when it comes to processing, we followed global standards. I think these are the basics to create a brand which have to be supported by proper promotional exercise. So, we started highlighting the USP of the basmati rice.

4Ps B&M: What major challenges do Indian food entrepreneurs face while trying to create a global brand?
AKM: Most players can’t afford to create a brand as it takes time and money to generate goodwill that is required to creating brand. And then, many players still consider it a commodity, which cannot be branded. Having been in the industry for over than three decades, I learnt that even a common food commodity like basmati rice could be branded. All it needed was the right brand name, with proper marketing efforts. I deliberately gave it the name ‘India Gate’ because its represents India.

4Ps B&M: And as per you, which are the key markets for Indian foods?
AKM: It’s difficult to point out the key markets. Like for rice, is can be either of Middle-East, Europe, Africa or US while Indian spices are demanded widely in Europe.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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A man who has jumped from paints to carbonated drinks to straight-off-the-shelf retail,

Mayur Toshniwal does not disappoint in his astute views on life, leadership and... biology!

Biology is the subject he hates, understanding personalities is what he loves, managing operations at Future Group is what he does. Mayur Toshniwal – President, Retail Operations (Value Formats) of Future Group comes out as a man who possesses a diversified personality, and not just because of his mix of mechanical engineering (from IT-BHU, Varanasi) and MBA (from IIM Ahmedabad).

Toshniwal started his corporate journey at the mecca of marketing learning, Asian Paints. But with his penchant for commerce and the personal quest to indulge in business, through his seven years tenure in Asian Paints and then in Coca Cola, he relentlessly kept hunting for something new. And his hunt came to an end when one day he met Kishore Biyani, the owner of Future Group, and in just 15 minutes flat decided to join the group as the CEO of North India.

That was five years back. But the journey till date, which he has cherished, has not been as hunky dory as it might seem – for as Future Group proliferated from Pantaloon to other different formats like Food Bazaar and Big Bazaar, Mayur’s challenges also started increasing. Moreover, with the responsibility of the pan India retail operations for the Rs.10,000 crore group, things were as complex as one could handle. “But it’s always interesting as you not only have new formats, but also have new cities adding bringing new challenges,” says Toshniwal.

But what about the growth target of 40% that Future Group had aimed for with respect to Pantaloon Retail India Ltd (which owns the brands of Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar etc)? Especially as the same-store-sales grew only by 5.7% in the first half of 2009 (Jan-June) and home retailing in fact declined by 4.8%. How logical was it to expand so much during the last year? “Yes, the last three years we have done major expansions; we entered in various new formats; Food Bazaar was established as a standalone store etc – we estimated that India will be a hub for a robust retail industry. It was the slowdown and rising real estate cost that affected the industry. But irrespective of that, grocery and food retailing format of out store has grown more that our expectation,” explains Toshniwal.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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Delighting dealers?

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Says Srikant Gokhle, CEO, Impact Retail (which owns the X-cite brand), “For the customer, we are the face of the company. It is we who sell their products and look after their after sales.” In India, a major chunk of sales of electronics and durables come from multi-brand outlets rather than exclusive stores (over 50% in some cases). Delighting the dealers therefore, becomes obligatory. When a customer walks into a multi-brand outlet with quite a handful of brands to choose from, it is the dealer who convinces the customer to buy a particular brand. And based on the relationship the dealer shares with the manufacturer, he pushes the brand to the customer. Most big dealers and modern retailers take the onus of installation of goods and providing service to the consumers upon themselves. So, in case a product develops faults, the consumer comes back to the dealer or the retailer, who in turn either rectifies the problem or sends it to the manufacturer. In this entire chain, the customer has no direct contact with the manufacturer; as Ajay Baijal, CEO, Reliance Digital, shares, “We have our own after-sales service program called Res-Q, and we also offer our own warranty in addition to the warranty offered by consumers.” X-Cite too has its own after sales service programme called Get Set Go. Stressing upon the need for great after-sales service for retaining customers, Gokhle of Impact Retail puts, “We cannot afford to lose our consumers especially on account of after-sales service...”

Even when it comes to marketing, dealers and retailers have joined hands with the companies. In order to enhance footfalls, dealers launch their own promotional discounts and schemes, as S. Rajendran, CMO, Acer India, reveals, “Our trade partners also come up with schemes to attract customers on their own and seek our participation in some of those initiatives too. We participated with Croma on their programs like ‘Back to School’, and with Home Solutions for their campaign on August 15, to make the most exciting offers available to consumers. Presently, we are engaged with Staples Future as partners in the ‘Tech Challenge’ which kickstarted on September 18.” Trained company salesmen assist dealers at the points-of-sale. Dealers at their own level also take measures to ensure sales, especially during the festive season when consumer spending is at its crest, as Kushal Negi, a multi-brand dealer in Delhi’s Yusuf Sarai Market puts it, “We send SMS messages, leaflets, pamphlets and even organise lucky draws to engage customers in large numbers.”

Then there are other means to delight the dealers as Prem Kumar, CEO, Fly Mobile, explains, “We train our dealers about the benefits of dual-sim enabled handsets. We are more of a technology enabler for our dealers,” to which V. Ramachandran, Director – Sales & Marketing, LG, adds, “We instill confidence in dealers by way of our services and work together on both monthly and quarterly basis. LG is very proactive when it comes to commission and transaction issues...” For sure, with the breeze of positivity blowing into our faces during festival time, the dealers will definitely give the companies, the reason to celebrate, and the white goods kings know this very well… Are consumers kings? Well, Deputy Kings surely!

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

“We will change your outlook” - The Sunday Indian on B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED! A must read...
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Savreen Gadhoke takes you on a thrilling ride into the star-studded brand building initiatives that bike major Hero Honda took in the last one year...

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To power its brand activation on all fronts, the two-wheeler major also launched a slew of new brands and variants in order to create excitement around the brand. It realised that during the economic downturn, it’s difficult to play solely on pricing. So it embarked upon the strategy of new launches and set the ball rolling for Hero Honda’s 100cc Passion Pro Power Start, and introduced variants of Splendor NXG, CBZ & Pleasure. Now the two-wheeler czar aims to launch bikes in each segment unlike Bajaj, which has strong presence only in the premium segment with Bajaj Pulsar or TVS. Hero Honda, with over 15 models in its kitty, is present in all categories with CD Dawn & CD Deluxe gracing the entry level segments; Pleasure (targeted at women); and Karizma & CBZ Extreme positioned in the premium segment. If Super Splendor talks of mileage, Hunk & Achiever flaunt the style quotient.

The brand’s association with the sensational MTV Hero Honda Roadies – Hell Down Under and Hero Honda Sa Re Ga Ma Pa also helped it garner buzz. Even though the profile of the youth targeted in both the shows was different, yet it played upon the aspirations of small town youth to make it big in a tough world. Hero Honda has also been quite active in promoting the brand at the regional front by co-sponsoring regional events like Miss Kerala 2009 for instance.

Besides, their rural campaign “Har gaon, har aangan” also did wonders to the company’s rural sales, which rose to double digit growth (yoy) in May. Adds Dua, “We instituted a dedicated rural vertical in late 2007 to bring all our rural initiatives under one umbrella with the vision of “Har Gaon Har Aangan”. This has further strengthened our presence in the rural market, with the contribution of rural sales to our total sales going up to 40% from about 37-38% three years back.”

Small surprise that Indian consumers have been giving this brand on wheels a big thumbs up so far. After all, winning the buzz war is half the battle won in ensuring first recall, then loyalty...

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

The Sunday Indian:- B-SCHOOL RANKING SCAMSTERS EXPOSED!
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AN ICMR AND 4Ps B&M SURVEY

Brands are like relationships. And in a crisis, relationships can either become better or worse, depending on the situation. 1999 was a tough one for Argentina. Not only did the economy suffer its worst economic recession in a decade, even established brands were affected badly. A Nielsen study affirmed that in 35 product categories, market share of leading brands shriveled by 5% to 64.9% during the bad times. Some of the world’s leading brands may have been born in times of recession, but even the best of brands find it tough to ride a recession unscathed. Our 2009 annual rankings of India’s 100 Most Valuable Brands comes even as the dark shadow of a slowdown seems to be receding from the economy. Read on to get acquainted with the super survivors and how they fared…

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
Follow Arindam Chaudhuri on Twitter
IIPM B School on Twitter
Management guru Arindam Chaudhuri’s latest blockbuster book, Discover The Diamond In You
IIPM 3-year full-time Integrated (MBA BBA) Programme
IIPM 2-year full time Programme (leading to the award of the MBA degree from IMI)
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IIPM Best B School – EVENTS
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Britannia and Nestle are strong players in the southern region

The group’s move into the dairy business (butter, ghee, paneer, ice-creams) – for which it has already acquired two plants – is another feather in its pan-Indian ambition cap. T. D. Mohan, Director, CavinKare insists that the group will invest about Rs.180 crore into the dairy biz over the next two years. For now, Britannia and Nestle are strong players in the southern region, but CavinKare is confident that through its unique model of procuring milk from farmers, it will be able to make its dairy business worth Rs.1,000 crore in the next couple of years. “Our core strength is product development, distribution and brand building and we’re leveraging these in our dairy business,” adds Mohan. Besides, only last month, CavinKare forayed into the restaurant business by launching an outlet in Puducherry. And CKR’s team is actively scouting for potential acquisition of existing restaurants so that CavinKare can move in quickly to lend its brand.

To be fair, CavinKare has a lot going for it. Besides, Nirma may not have succeeded, but there are too many instances of regional brands making it big on the national scene. Anchor toothpaste, which started in Rajasthan is today ubiquitous all over U.P., M.P. and Bihar. Likewise, Ghadi Detergent kicked off in U.P. and has a huge presence in M.P., Rajasthan and Gujarat now. Kerala’s Jyothi Laboratories, is doing particularly well in the North-East and West Bengal.

CavinKare itself has beaten expectations. For instance, Chik shampoo is the market leader in U.P. and Nyle derives 90% of its sales from non-south regions. Even Spinz is a top-selling brand in M.P., while its deodorants sell spectacularly in Maharashtra too; Indica hair dye is going great guns in Gujarat. In fact, the group derives less than 50% of its sales from the south these days, primarily because it has maintained its low and mid income positioning in these regions too. And while its ambitions to straddle the urban SEC A segment in retail ventures like foods and beauty salons may yet come true, the same may not really hold true for the FMCG category per se. On the contrary, its past FMCG forays in the SEC A segment have not met with much success. Perhaps the astute entrepreneur CKR has an inkling of the potential bottlenecks. “If I’m asked who is CavinKare, I would say we are someone comfortable playing in the mass market as well as at the top end of the middle class. We are not present in the SEC A category as of now. For that matter even Sunsilk is not penetrating the SEC A category. So we are comfortable with the positioning we have given ourselves,” he says carefully.

They can however still do it. At the end of the day, it’s all about innovation, distribution and understanding the consumer and CKR has proven himself time and again on all three fronts. Most importantly, he has his eyes set high. He wants to be an “HUL in the making” in just another decade. Well, talk about the sheer joy of thinking big!!

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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In the Pink of health

Economic development and health insurance go hand in hand; yet in the Indian context the correlation seems more skewed towards economic development. With enormous potential, glimmers of hope are emanating for the industry.

“Meant for the rich, educated or those in business… benefits hospitals more than holders” is the common (negative) perception about health insurance in India where the healthcare expense is a mere (3.6% of the GDP). What is startling is the fact that the health insurance market is still grossly under-penetrated with only 2% of the billion plus population possessing a health insurance cover. Juxtapose these with the fact that during 2008-09, the general insurance industry recorded total health insurance premium of Rs. 6,625 crore (a 30% improvement over the previous year).

Moreover, for the last six years health insurance industry has been growing at a CAGR of 35% to reach the current level. That clearly indicates the huge potential that the industry has in India. For private players in the domain, health insurance is emerging as an increasingly significant line of business. V. Vaidyanathan, MD & CEO ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co Ltd, avers “health insurance contributes to 7% of the total premiums and we expect it to increase to 15%.”But then, as J. Hari Narayan, Chairman IRDA says, “the growth in numbers is also fraught with numerous challenges of ensuring accessibility, affordability and efficiency in the health insurance system, which requires sustained and focused efforts on the part of all stakeholders.”

But the question remains the same – why do people have a negative perception? It’s simply for the fact that approximately 70% of the health expenses are out of pocket. As a matter of fact out of the Rs.2 trillion health insurance spread, almost Rs.1.3 – 1.4 trillion are out-of pocket expenses. There is some inherent problems viz. definition of pre-existing disease/ critical illness, et al, which makes matter worse. 30% of health insurance claims are rejected and unbelievably 90% of these rejections are due to pre-existing diseases. If the industry has to grow, “the communication between sales force and policy holders must increase,” says Hari Narayan.

It is true that increasing awareness, rising healthcare costs, recent detariffing of the general insurance industry have been key drivers, but the real need is of products, which can capture other expenses. Standard definitions and list of critical illnesses and non-medical expenses will not only enhance customers understanding of these terms but will also help smoothen the interaction between the patients, hospitals, TPAs and insurers by minimising ambiguities.

Gyanendra Kumar Kashyap

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
Management guru Arindam Chaudhuri’s latest blockbuster book, Discover The Diamond In You
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