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Private insurers must fulfil social tasks: PM

Our Bureau

NEW DELHI, Aug. 10

ALL private insurance companies which enter the Indian market should meet their specified social sector obligations, the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, said today.

Addressing a function to launch the new `Janashree Bima Yojana', Mr. Vajpayee said that nationalised insurance companies should gear up to meet the impending competition arising out of the opening up of the sector.

Speaking on the occasion, the Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha, said that the fact that rural insurance business is also quite profitable is evident from the growing business of the Life Insurance Corporation in the rural sector.

He pointed out that LIC's business growth rate in the rural segment was three times more than the growth in the urban areas.

Highlighting the fact that insurance companies provide long-term funds which can be deployed in the infrastructure sector, Mr. Sinha said that the LIC has agreed to provide funds for the 13,000-km highway connecting the four metros.