It was an interesting discussion on the General Insurance awareness day before yesterday, with the Chief Finance Officer of one of the leading business schools in Bangalore, which I feel like sharing.

You all may have heard of National Insurance Academy, which gives training in Life & General Insurance in India & is quite old now. Say more than two decades. Even today the common man knows it as "LIC COMPLEX”.

General Public immediately think of LIC when Insurance is talked about. They do not even know that there is an insurance cover available for accidental losses in fire, machinery, liability etc. leave alone the loss of profits & Advance loss of profits in project insurances.

That general perception of Insurance is understandable. But, the business schools, who generate the best business minds in the global financial services, are also not much aware of the General Insurances & the terms & conditions is a bit surprise to me.

Please go through my earlier blog of 1st April 2010, where I wrote on the new trends in curriculum of Business schools, where General Insurance is being taken seriously & it is taught in 5 months with more emphasis on the practical exposure to the students, as the requirements in General Insurance services is increasing.

I was literally taken a back when I heard from the CFO of business school that HR department follows up the renewal of policies & Finance dept. is trying to negotiate premium & both do not actually know the coverage & intricacies of any of the policies.

So I felt that there is a good potential to "train the trainers" in General Insurance; more so in the practical application side of it.

Now coming to Industrialists, they look at it from the statutory & premium angle & not realy from RISK MANAGEMENT angle. Here too there is a big need in the General Insurance field for proper education, consultancy & awareness programmes by way of specific needs of industries to optimise the covers & premiums so that the risk is managed optimally & the business prospers.

With the IRDA advertising in news papers on the insurance needs, so many players with joint ventures & other tie ups, General Insurance knowledge is spreading & there will be lot of demand for the General Insurance Educators as well.

KRISHNA BURLI