Chennai, May 28: The Life Insurance Corporation Of India has come up with a new plan called The Jeevan Amrit to provide their services to the people who are looking for long-term insurance coverage by paying premium for a short term.
This plan is specially designed for NRIs, young software professionals and people who have a foothold in the entertainment industry .The policy has various features like providing high cover at a low cost. This policy is open to persons belonging to the age group of 12 to 60 years.The premium payment term here is limited to three, four and five years. The premium comes down drastically from the second year onwards. The policy term

ranges from 10 to 30 years and the minimum sum assured is Rs 1 lakh. The plan has no upper limit. The policy holder on the maturity benefit, would get the total premium amount (Excluding any extra premium if paid) along with bonus and final additional bonus.
In the event of death, sum assured along with vested bonuses will be payable, said the release.
A unique feature of the plan is that bonuses are payable on the total premiums paid rather than the sum assured, This feature makes the plan more attractive for higher premium payers.
As per the other features of this plan, the simple reversionary bonus would be declared at a rate proportional to the total amount of premiums paid as on the date of valuation annually at the end of each financial year.

The total new business premium (annualized premium equivalent) for the sector has grown 110% to Rs 35,898 crore as private insurers tried to get their piece of life insurance cake during FY07, beating industry expectations. The lead has however been taken by the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). Rajeev Verma and Ashish Agarwal of DSP Merrill Lynch have expressed their surprises to the fact that this growth is led by public sector major LIC. LIC has reported a new business premium growth by 118% to Rs 25,645 crore. An LIC official explains this phenomenal growth a result of LIC’s new product launches and aggressive marketing efforts. About five private sector insurers have

reported 100%-plusgrowth in their new business. A high demand for unit-linked insurance products has made this growth happen. Unit-linked insurance products have brought in more than 80% of this growth.
Scarcity effect due to changes in regulation, buoyant equity markets and enhanced penetration are mentioned as the key factors responsible for this high level growth in insurance premia during FY07.
The most surprising piece of news however is the fact that LIC’s market share has increased from 71% to 74% at a time when most private insurance companies have failed to show a good report. At one end, where ICICI-Prudential maintained to lead the private insurers zone with a market share of 7%, Bajaj Allianz, HDFC Standard Life and Birla Sun Life showed a shaky ground.
HDFC Standard Life did not fare well in spite of trying to expertise its strategy and expand its distribution network.”
Industry analysts report LIC’s claim to fame to its focus on product innovation. “LIC’s vibrant brand value and excellent marketing efforts have made it emerge with this lead in market share.

In the present scenario, the Rupee can very precisely be crowned as the World’s Favorite currency. The Reserve Bank of India is increasingly having a tough time to prevent the rupee from appreciating. In the month of April, a sharp appreciation of the Rupee against the Indian Dollar has been observed. Of recent, the U.S- based Inter American Development Bank (IADB) raised the rupee-denominated debt worth Rs 150 crore in the Japanese market in the month of May. The issue subjected to 10- year bonds offering an interest rate of 8.25%, with payments to be settled in dollars. It had raised a smaller amount for three years in Feb 2007 at 7.25%.

The appreciation of the rupee has led to various favourable outputs. It has made Indian exports more expensive in markets where transactions are designated in U.S. dollars while making imports relatively inexpensive. Analysts are of the view that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country's central bank and apex monetary authority, has consciously allowed the rupee to strengthen as part of a package of policies aimed at controlling domestic inflation. In recent months, inflation in India, as measured by the official wholesale price index, had threatened to cross the 7 percent mark and is currently hovering in the region of 6 percent.
Vineet Gupta of Calyon Bank points out that investors are looking out for India as portfolio and the global demand for the Indian currency continues to strengthen. It is being observed that the dollar value of redemption would presently directly depend on the value of the Rupee.
The reason behind the strengthening of the is because the steady weakening of the U.S. currency against hard currencies like the yen, the euro and the pound. The strong rupee would have a negative short-term impact on the growth of "price-elastic' exports such as computer software, IT-enabled services (or business process outsourcing), garments and textiles.
The appreciation of the Rupee has led to an increase in global markets for Rupee dominated assets. Infact, Dubai launched rupee-dollar futures contracts that will be traded on the Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) on Thursday. The Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange Indian rupee contract will let companies and individuals trade their rupee risk.
Again, the recent rise in the rate of growth of the Indian economy has been fuelled by a sharp rise in manufacturing output and the services sector. Among the services that have been growing very fast are IT-enabled services and computer software. These segments of the economy are now likely to be adversely impacted by the appreciation of the rupee. But analysts do point out that the sudden strengthening of the rupee against the Indian dollar would be a passing phenomenon.
Export targets of 160 billion dollars and 200 billion dollars respectively have been set by India's commerce minister Kamal Nath, for the country over the next two years. He has reportedly said that the Indian government had taken into account the likely slowdown in the U.S. economy while setting these targets.
The Chinese Renminbi is being considered a potential candidate for an emerging market currency. However, due to the perception that government determines China’s exchange rate, such deals are not yet happening.

UTI Mutual Fund has come up with UTI Gold Exchange Traded Fund from the 1st March 2007. The investment objective of the fund is to provide returns that, before expenses, and keep a close eye on the performance and yield of Gold. The performance of the scheme however, may differ from that of the underlying asset due to certain tracking error. . UTI Gold Exchange Traded Fund is an open-ended exchange traded fund. The scheme provides investment in gold bullion. It will reflect the international price of gold in the market. The primary objective of UTI Gold Exchange Traded Fund is to endeavour to provide returns that, before expenses, closely track the performance and yield of gold.

UTI-Gold ETF will be traded on the stock exchange (to start with on the National Stock Exchange-NSE) on a real time basis (i.e. buying/selling can be done any time during the trading hours) after the New Fund Offer (NFO) period. Investors need to keep a demat account for investing in the fund as units of UTI-Gold ETF will be available only in dematerialized form, Investors can purchase units of UTI-Gold ETF directly from the fund house during the NFO period. There is a maximum entry load of 2.50% at the time of investment. The minimum investment amount during the NFO is Rs 20,000.
Investors can buy/sell units directly from the exchange through a stock broker after the fund is listed in the stock exchange (approximately 30 days after the NFO closes).
Dealing with a stock broker there is no entry load; rather, investors have to pay brokerage/commission (usually hovering around 0.50% of the transaction value). The minimum number of units that an investor can buy/sell through the exchange is 1 unit. The value of each unit will equal (approximately) the price of 1 gram of gold.
However, the record of gold as a standalone investment has been none-too-impressive. It has returned only around 8.60% CAGR-Compounded Annualized Growth Rate, which is a very modest performance considering that most other asset classes have fared markedly better over this period over 17 years.

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SBI Mutual Fund, one of the leading mutual funds in India has launched a three year close ended fund called SBI Infrastructure Fund Series-I, which would become an open ended fund on the expiry of three years. The fund follows a certain investment criteria. It would invest in equity stocks of companies and enterprises that are either directly or indirectly engaged in infrastructure growth in the Indian economy and look for a long-term growth in the capital. The equity component of the portfolio will range from 65% to 100%. Out of this, a maximum of 50% exposure can be made in derivatives instruments in order to balance portfolio and exploring opportunities to enhance returns. Commenting on the launch of SBI

Infrastructure Fund – Series I, Mr. Sanjay Sinha, Head of Equity, SBI Mutual Fund, on the launch of SBI Infrastructure Fund has reported that the fund primarily proposes to harness the investment opportunity in the infrastructure sector from the proposed spending of over Rs.14 lacs crores in the 11th 5 Year plan. The fund would invest a minimum of 65 percent in equity/ equity related instruments’ including derivatives and the balance is proposed to be invested in a mixture of Debt and Money Market instruments whose performance has been benchmarked to BSE 100 index. Debt and money market securities will be in the 0%-35% range.