Tumchi Aamchi Mumbai

Everywhere you look, crores of people always in a hurry. Mumbai, India’s financial capital is one of the most populous cities in the world where time is money. People from all 30 states and expats share a living in this ever bustling city. It’s a tough place. Difficult to travel and almost impossible to buy a place. But Mumbai will give you a fair chance if you are willing to work hard. 

Just like Mumbai, moving on….

Business District

Mumbai has 4 business districts namely Nariman Point, Lower Parel, Bandra Kurla Complex and Andheri. Most of the private companies in India are headquartered in Mumbai. We have work hard party hard attitude. Mumbai also has the most number of bars and night life hotspots. You can get a beer at 1am in most bars of South Mumbai. Although 24x7 Mumbai is still a distant dream. Mumbai is also a port city and nearly 10% of high value land belongs to Mumbai Port Trust. It is well connected by sea routes and has ship building industry.

Mumbai has one of costliest apartments in the world. A flat in Malabar Hill area may cost you around Rs. 80000 per square foot ( Yeah.. you heard it right! ) A luxurious sky bungalow on 117^th floor in Lodha World One costs whopping 17.2 crore. We also have bollywood and last checked of BookMyShow there were 32 movies running in 9 regional languages.

Old and New

Mumbai was developed by the Portuguese and the British. Mumbai was always the best destination for business in India. In 1870, there were 6 foreign banks operating from Bombay. The Bombay Stock Exchange was established in the 1870’s. Business made Mumbai as beautiful as London and Paris. The CST building, University of Mumbai, Asiatic Society, Taj Mahal Palace, Rajabhai Tower are some of the most beautiful structures in Mumbai.

Marine Drive, Lower Parel make Mumbaikars proud. We have the best skyline in India and looking at current construction rate, we might overtake New York in 2030 by the most number of skyscrapers. The upcoming Bhendi Bazaar redevelopment project with transform the face of crowded market into Mini Smart City. With FDI in construction, Mumbai skyline will see a major facelift in coming decade.

Chalo Chalo Chalo. #MumbaiLocalIn3Words

Mumbai is major design flaw. The city kept growing and but its snail run infrastructure lacked expansion. Mumbai’s lifeline is it’s local trains. They are divided into three lines namely Western, Central and Harbour. Most of the commuters travel from northen suburbs to South and Central business districts to make a living. Peak hours in Mumbai are named as ‘super dense crush load’. Trains of all three lines at the distance of three minutes and each train carries around 5000 people. Mumbai local has the highest daily ridership in the world with 26 million people. Male, Female, Old and young, there is just one strategy to travel in Mumbai – Push or be pushed.

- Chaitanya Kulkarni ( twitter.com/chai2kul )

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a

Faultlines – Claim Settlement Ratio

Claim settlement is one of the most important services that an insurance company can provide to its customers. Insurance companies have an obligation to settle claims promptly. For instance, if a life insurance company receives 1000 death claims and settles 980, the claim settlement ratio of that company would be 98%.

The very purpose of insurance will be defeated if the claim is not provided for when required. This assumes all the more relevance when the beneficiaries are dependent on the insurance proceeds. In such a situation, a claim being denied will be a huge financial setback.

The fault in Statistics

The oldies in the insurance market get undue advantage while calculating claim settlement ratio. In year 2013- 14, the promising entrant in the Indian insurance market Edelweiss Tokio Insurance rejected just 10 claims according to IRDA data. In the same financial year, Life Insurance Corporation of India rejected 17000 plus claims. But still, claim ratio of LIC is high because of higher sample size.

The ratio declared is the sum total of all claims honoured by the company for all its life insurance policies and products. So what we see is the average and not the exact ratio for each type of policy -- term insurance, endowment cover, money back policy, child plan, online plan or offline, group insurance or individual cover, and so on and so forth.

Also, what we see is the figure in percentage terms, not the actual number. So it is not clear how many claims the company actually rejected.

Let's say an insurance company rejects 100 out of 1,000 claims, giving it a claim settlement ratio of 90 per cent. The next year it gets 10,000 claims but rejects 500. Its claim settlement ratio goes up to 95 per cent but it has rejected more claims.

A claim within a year or two of taking the policy calls for a detailed investigation. If there are many such claims, then it would affect the claim settlement ratio.

Also, if the sum assured is very high, then the insured undergoes varies medical check-ups before the insurance policy is issued. So these claims are processed faster giving no reason why the claim should be repudiated.

It could also be the case where policy holders have held back facts. Misstated, incorrect and insufficient data provided by individuals at the time of buying the policy could lead to claims being rejected. This is no fault of the company.

It is advised to buyers that they should consider claim settlement ratio over the number of years before making the decision to buy. 

- Chaitanya Kulkarni ( twitter.com/chai2kul )

-         Note – The Article is sponsored by Edelweiss Tokio