Take advantage of surety bonds, Irdai Chairman to stakeholders in infra space
New Delhi: Insurance sector regulator Debasish Panda on Tuesday stressed on the need to make use of surety bonds to complement bank guarantees and support the country’s mega infrastructure building activity.

Govt approves welfare boost for LIC employees and agents
Over 1 lakh employees and nearly 13 lakh agents of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) will have something to cheer, as the Finance Ministry on Monday approved welfare measures, including enhancing the family pension and gratuity limit.

More women increasingly make their own decisions while purchasing term insurance policy
One of the most common myths about women’s relationships with money is about their dependence on family members for financial planning. In contrast to the perception, more women are now opting for term life insurance by themselves, according to a recent data analysis by PolicyBazaar.

Life insurer promises 3% rise as PSU bank offers 6%
Much on the anticipated lines, the Indian equities started the new week on a defensive note; both key indices ended in the negative near their low point. Following a negative start to the trade, the Nifty index also started lower. However, in the first half of the session, it slowly crawled higher to recover all its losses and trade flat. The second half of the session saw the markets coming under pressure once again as the Index drifted towards a new low point of the day. In the end, the headline index closed with a net loss of 59.05 points (-0.29%).

Emerging Equity Fund: Bharti AXA Life Insurance unveils NFO after 13 years
 

Chola MS General eyes ₹10,500 crore revenue by FY26
Chola MS General Insurance Co. Ltd. (Chola MS) has set a near-term revenue target of more than ₹10,500 crore for FY26, said Managing Director V. Suryanarayanan.

Sebi imposes Rs 35 lakh fine on MI Research for flouting regulatory norms
New Delhi, Capital markets regulator Sebi has imposed a fine of Rs 35 lakh on MI Research for violating regulatory norms. MI Research (Proprietor -- Ashish Jain) is a Sebi-registered Investment Adviser.

Pension reform reversal
In large and diverse countries like India, it is often difficult to push economic reform with long-term potential benefits. It is thus disappointing to see hard-won reforms being reversed with significant long-term implications. One such reversal is pension for government employees. Several states such as Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand have decided to go back to the Old Pension Scheme (OPS). At a time when life expectancy is increasing, thanks to improving standards of living and medical care, the outgo on account of pension will inevitably increase and put pressure on government finances. It will leave that much less for building roads and schools. Anticipating the increase in pension liabilities, the Union government in 2004 rightly introduced the National Pension System (NPS), which was a defined-contribution scheme. Most state governments saw merit in it and adopted the scheme.

Old pension scheme 4.5 times more costly than the existing NPS: RBI Study
 

Valuations have moved up; markets may be volatile in the near term, says Shibani Sircar Kurian of Kotak Mahindra AMC
Shibani Sircar Kurian, senior EVP and the head of equity research at Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company (AMC) pointed out that mid-cap and small-cap valuations are above their long-term averages. On a relative basis to large-caps, mid and small-cap valuations are at significantly higher levels as compared to long-term averages. In an interview with Mint, she talked about market fundamentals and macroeconomic scenarios.

Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund launches Motilal Oswal Developed Market Ex US ETFs Fund of Funds

Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund has launched Motilal Oswal Developed Market Ex US ETFs Fund of Funds, an open-ended fund of funds scheme investing in units of Global ETFs which track the performance of developed markets excluding US.

IRDAI chief Panda urges stakeholders to harness surety bonds
Asserting that the current Bank Guarantee capacity of banks is insufficient to meet the credit demand for infrastructure development in the next five years, IRDAI Chairman Debasish Panda has called upon stakeholders to come together to tap the rich potential of “Surety Bonds” in meeting the gap in demand.