Andhra Pradesh - Tirupati   

`US companies desperate to penetrate Indian insurance sector'

Special Correspondent

TIRUPATI: K. Venugopal, general secretary of the All-India Insurance Employees' Association (AIIEA), on Friday said that US insurance companies were bent upon penetrating the Indian insurance sector because of a stagnation in the sector back home and cited in this connection the recent assertion by US Ambassador to India David Mulford that India must allow 49 per cent foreign direct investment. He said the US demand had more to do with the needs of its domestic insurance sector than the national requirements of India. Addressing a press conference here today, he said since the Life Insurance Corporation was in a position to invest up to $150 billion in next seven years for infrastructure funding, the AIIEA was of the strong view that nothing adverse should be done to weaken the public sector insurance companies.

Reiterating the association's opposition to any increase in the FDI in the insurance sector, he said the employees would go on a one-day token strike if the Government brought in the Bill to increase the FDI.

He said the AIIEA was also opposed to the privatisation of the pension funds.

Demanding the immediate revival of recruitment especially in the Class II and IV cadres, Mr. Venugopal pointed out that while the number of employees in the LIC had come down by 15,000 over the last seven years, the number of policies had increased from seven crores to 17 crores during the corresponding period.

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