Life insurance cos stare at highest natural disaster bill

Insurance officials feel that life insurance claims in Japan following last week's earthquake and the resulting tsunami will be the highest among all natural disasters so far. While the number of casualties have not been established, there are reports that 3,373 people are dead and another 6,746 are missing. There have also been statements from officials that the toll could go touch 10,000. This would be almost twice the 5,100 deaths which took place in Japan in 1995 following the Kobe earthquake. Although last week's disaster is among the worst in recent years, there have been several events, including the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 which caused higher casualties. For the insurance market, the difference this time is that the casualties have taken place in Japan, a country with one of the highest levels of insurance penetration and per capita income.

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Tendulkar highest contributor to our child fund: Rel Life

Private insurer Reliance Life today said that Sachin Tendulkar, who has just completed his 48th one-day century, also becomes one of the highest contributor for children in its philanthropic initiative.The insurer has taken initiative to contribute Rs 25,000 to underprivileged children for every 'six' scored in the cricket World Cup.The insurer has taken initiative to contribute Rs 25,000 to underprivileged children for every 'six' scored in the cricket World Cup. For this, it has joined hands with the International Cricket Council (ICC) and Room to Read---a global non-profit organisation promoting literacy and gender equality in education for this campaign. Tendulkar has so far hit 8 sixes, just behind West Indies' K A Pollard. Other Indian players who have contributed to the initiative include Virender Sehwag and Yusuf Pathan who hit 7 and 5 sixes, respectively.

"Over 5,000 children have already benefited under the Reliance Life Insurance 'Boundaries for Books Initiative' as players hit nearly 150 sixes in World Cup," the insurer said in a statement. Every single six will provide at least 30 underserved children with access to fully functional libraries with local language and English books as well as trained teachers. In addition to contributing for every six hit in the world cup, Reliance Life also contributed Rs 10,000 for every four in the India-England match to the NGO under the same initiative, the company said.