Dear Comrades,
According to the article published in The HINDU dated 28th Nov, 2010;
Very soon, your neighbourhood postman can be your insurance agent. The Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) has granted permission to postal circles to distribute insurance products.
IRDA has allowed each circle of the Department of Post (DOP) to act as a corporate agent of insurers. This effectively means that post offices will now serve as an office for insurance agencies. The DOP has divided the whole country into 22 postal circles for providing postal services.
As per IRDA, each Circle of India post should be treated as a separate unit in order to grant independent corporate agent licence with various insurers. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) allowed each circle to tie up with two non-life insurance companies, two life insurance companies, one agricultural insurance company and one stand alone health insurance company for this purpose.
So each circle can act as an agent of five various insurance companies for various insurance activities. In case of metropolitan areas, the head of a circle may approach IRDA for prior approval of further division within the circle into separate units because of large population. The smaller units can then obtain licence to act as corporate agents. Corporate agents act as insurance agent for insurers and procure businesses on behalf of the insurance companies through its executives.
