The 23rd annual general conference of the Federation of the lIC-1 Officers’ Association (Brahmapur Division) was held here on Sunday morning. Association general secretary Prabeer Kumar Rath presented a report on various achievements of the lIC and pitfalls of country’s economy.
Speakers pointed out that the Indian insurance industry has undergone transformational changes since the year 2000 with 24 insurance companies running the market now.
They criticised that the FDI cap for the insurance sector at 49 per cent has not worked positively as none of the major Indian companies have made any tangible moves to rope in capital from abroad. Similarly, health insurance policies in India hitherto have remained an ignored product, they pointed out.
They pointed out that in spite of being a tough year for the insurance industry, the lIC-I has come out with a record performance and proved it to be the undisputed market leader even after 16 years of competition with global insurance giants.
The association placed a 27-point charter of demands on this occasion. They demanded implementation of wage revision proposal due since August 1, 2012 and mobility for all classes and biometric systems from April 2016.
The demands included automatic upgrading of the pay scales as done in the SBI with stagnation increment in every two years, provision of two increments on every promotion, provision of progressive increase in NGI at five per cent rate for the cadres, increase of transfer grant to two months of the basic pay, provision of professional qualification allowance, up-gradation of family pension, continuation of Group Insurance scheme up to 75 years, provision of paternity and sabbatical leave, increase of transport allowance to `3,500 per month and medical allowance of `30,000 per year.
The speakers pooh-poohed the NDA Government’s various programmes like Make in India, Swachh Bharat, Jahn Dhan Yojana and Smart Cities while terming them as illusory. They likened the NDA Government with the last UPA Government terming them as two sides of the same coin.