According to the report released by Irda, insurers paid Rs 1,06,982 cr to policyholders on account of surrenders in 2013-14, up by 2% compared to the previous year.

Seventy per cent of affluent population of the country, who hold investments other than cash, have put their money in life insurance, while 64 per cent among them have gone for fixed deposits, according to the DSP BlackRock India Investor Pulse Survey.

It was a good year for health insurance with adoption of standard definitions, features and formats. Some insurers launched innovative plans covering treatments abroad.

The Bill is stuck in the Rajya Sabha. The ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, is in minority in the upper house, and will need support from other parties there to get the bill passed.

Insurance regulator Irda has penalised the insurer on charges including, delay in payment of claims, non-adherence to product specifications, among others.

Irda chief predicted that 2015 will be in a better position in terms of premium collection for all the three verticals of insurance industry - Life, Non-Life and Health.

On the life insurance side, the firms launched new products aligned with the new regulations, though overall growth was in the negative region during 2014.

Sebi has also proposed allowing re-issuance of existing debt securities by a corporate issuer within a specified time period rather than launching a new issue.

India's institutions may seem weak after scams of recent years but the cleansing will usher in predictability in the system, says Former Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai.

The new supervision model, derived from global best practices, would follow four steps to assess the risk posed by a market entity and then adopt a supervisory approach.

After hardening of premium under group health insurance three months ago, property and fire segments are also set to witness increase in premium rates from the next calendar year.

According to the Finance Minister, there is a need to have an active and responsive regulator. However, he cautioned about the growth of multi- sectoral regulators in recent times.

Under the pilot project, Irda had asked insurers to tie-up with all repositories so that policyholders can keep their policies in digital form.

A look at recent rulings which can affect you.

Set up between 1993 and 2000, these subsidiaries, however, were of little account even five years ago, contributing hardly anything to the group's bottom line.

The Insurance Bill, which proposes to hike the FDI limit in the insurance sector to 49%, has been caught in a logjam with the Congress-led opposition.

The Irda said that the company has failed to comply with the social sector obligation for the second consecutive year in 2013-14.

The decision came after the regulator body felt that insurers should be free to give agents better commissions to help deepen insurance penetration.

As per IRDA's draft regulations issued earlier, Insurance Marketing Firm is an entity licensed by IRDA to market financial products approved by financial sector regulators, by employing persons licensed to market the financial products.

The new businesses premium collected by the life insurance industry during the first half stood at Rs 49,179 crore.