|
Opportunities in the Insurance Sector
Insurance business has a
positive correlation with economic development in an economy.
As an economy develops over the years, insurance sector
starts making inroads into the interiors of the system. Most
of the times, insurance begins with the life insurance and
gradually spreads to the field of general insurance. Every
forward looking person would invariably have his/her life
insurance done. Even in a country like India, it is hard to
believe that any adult person living in towns would not have
life insurance done and the concept is picking up even in the
rural areas. In other words, the life insurance market in
India is as large as its population.
Expanding Horizons
During the past several years, the business of life insurance
has flourished so much that the insurance business is being
considered to be one of the most rapidly developing area in
the financial sector. Keeping the large potential of growth
of this sector in mind, the Government set up a special
committee, known as Malhotra Committee, to recommend reforms
in insurance sector to enable it to meet the challenge of
globalisation. Most of the recommendations of the Committee
have not yet been implemented but the time is not far when
majority of the recommendations would be given effect.
Just like banks, the branches of Life Insurance Corporation
of India (LIC) have now reached most parts of the country.
The physical absence of its branches has been overcome by the
presence of a large network of its agents. LIC agents have
spread even to the remote villages today. The expanding
sector offers challenging and remunerative jobs, with several
attractive benefits linked with good achievements in terms of
business. The promotion and personal development benefits are
plenty and a hard-working candidate can hope to go quite high
up in the ladder of promotion. With the entry of private
business groups into the field of insurance round the corner,
the opportunities offered by the insurance sector are going
to increase manifold.
Assistant Administrative Officers
As a direct entry to the officer cadre, Assistant
Administrative Officer (AAO) is considered to be a
prestigious direct entry to the Insurance Sector. AAOs are
recruited through a competitive examination and anyone
recruited as a direct AAO can hope to reach the highest
level, provided his/her performance in the profession is very
good. AAOs are normally appointed as Branch Managers in
smaller branches and, as the name of the post indicates, are
responsible for overall general administration of the branch.
Even in the bigger branches and, higher offices, AAOs are
assigned important tasks and assist not only in better
administration of the branch/said office but also help
achieving the financial targets.
Eligibility: Examination for AAOs in GIC and LIC are
conducted separately, generally every year by both the
corporations. Every graduate/post graduate in any discipline
including Arts, Science, Commerce, Engineering or law with 50
per cent marks is eligible to take this examination. The
Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates are
eligible with 40 per cent marks. A candidate is required to
have qualifying marks either in the graduate or post graduate
examination. The candidates must be more than 21 years of age
and the upper age limit is 28 years. Relaxation in the upper
age limit is available to the concerned categories as per
rules. Reservation of vacancies to the SC, ST, OBC (Other
Backward Classes) and ECO/SSRCO (Emergency Commissioned
Officers/Short Service Retrenched Commissioned Officers) is
available as per rules. Serving confirmed employees of LIC/GIC
can appear in the competitive examination upto 40 years of
age.
Scheme of Examination: There is a two tier system of
examination which includes a written examination and personal
interview. The written examination consists of two tests. The
first test is objective-type multiple choice and the second
one is descriptive in nature. The objective test i.e. Paper-I
has four parts viz (a) Reasoning Ability (b) Numerical
Ability (c) General Knowledge and Current Affairs and (d)
English Language with special emphasis on grammar and
vocabulary. First three tests in Paper-I are bilingual and
can be attempted either in English or Hindi, while the fourth
test i.e. the Language test is for English Language. Paper-II
is descriptive in nature and consists of Essay writing in
English or Hindi and Precis and comprehension in English
Language.
The Competitive examination is conducted by the respective
corporations, usually every year, and the advertisment of the
examination appears in almost all the leading daily
newspapers. Detailed advertisement, along with specimen of
examination/application form, is published in the concerned
issue of the Employment News. The number of examination
centres keep on changing, usually increasing, with the number
of aspiring candidates. At present for LIC there are 34
centres at places like Agra, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Bombay,
Calcutta, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Cuttack, Dharwad, Gangtok,
Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Jabalpur, Jaipur, Jalpaiguri,
Jammu, Kanpur, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Madras, Madurai, Nagpur,
New Delhi, Panaji, Patna, Pune, Ranchi, Shillong, Silchar,
Trivandrum, Varanasi and Vishakhapatnam.
All the candidates who qualify the written examination are
called for the personal interview. The personal interview is
aimed at judging the suitability of the candidates for the
post of AAOs. Selection is made on the basis of overall
performance of the candidates in the written test and
interview. The selected candidates, after the prescribed
training, are absorbed as AAOs in the pay scale of Rs
2100-4260. (The pay scale is due for revision w.e.f. 1993
following the recent settlement).
Other Posts
In addition to the AAOs, both the Insurance Companies recruit
other categories of employees by way of direct recruitment.
For example, Chartered Accountants are recruited directly as
AAOs in the LIC without written examination. Similarly, GIC
recruits Assistants through a competitive examination called
Assistants' Examination and LIC conducts clerical Assistants'
Examination for recruitment to these posts. The minimum
qualification for these two exams is Matriculation with 60
per cent marks and the written examination also consists of
objective type Tests of Reasoning, Numerical Ability,
Clerical Aptitude, English Language and General Knowledge. In
addition, descriptive test for Essay, Letter and Precis
writing is also held. The standard of this competitive
examination is lower than that for the AAOs. Age relaxations
and reservation of vacancies is also as per the rules. The
Candidates who qualify the written test are then interviewed
and the combined merit is considered while making the final
selection. It is, however, pertinent to add that the minimum
age required is 18 years and the upper age limit is 25 to 26
years.
How to Prepare
Every competitive examination requires systematic and
prolonged preparations. Even to get into any of the jobs
offered by the insurance sector, the candidates have to
prepare hard. The examination aims at judging the knowledge
as well as speed of the candidates, particularly in the
objective type paper. At the same time, the descriptive test
judges the analytical ability, depth of knowledge, expression
and understanding of the languages and needs different type
of preparations. The objective tests require knowledge and
speed to solve the problems correctly and thorough practice.
GK and current affairs need special knowledge of these
subjects and cannot be mastered in a short period of time. It
is a long-term process and the aspiring candidates have to
begin early. A good book on the basics of General Knowledge,
supported by reading a good national newspaper and
competitive magazine can greatly assist a candidate to do
well in this part. For mastering the reasoning, numerical
ability and English language, special efforts are required to
solve the objective type questions correctly. The Competition
Master is an ideal magazine to prepare for the objective type
tests, supported by a standard GK-book like "General
Knowledge Refresher" by O.P. Khanna, published by Khanna
Brothers (Publishers) Chandigarh. Other books like 'Test of
Reasoning', 'Current Affairs and Backgrounders', 'Topical
Essays', 'How to Study and Take Exams' etc are some other
books which can immensely assist the aspiring candidates. A
standard grammar and comprehension book for the descriptive
tests is of good help.
For the objective tests, in addition to the knowledge,
practice is also very important. More particularly for the
Reasoning and Numerical Ability tests practice pays rich
dividends. It not only enables a candidate to solve the
problems correctly by indicating the methods to be used but
also by achieving the required speed to solve the questions
correctly. Regular practice also generates a lot of
confidence in the mind of the candidate to attempt the paper.
The descriptive questions, on the other hand, need more of
knowledge and analytical input. In-depth knowledge and
correct expression are two important ingredients of essay
writing. In addition style of writing also determines the
marks to be obtained by the candidates. Similarly, precise writing is an art unto itself and needs to be mastered. It is
not just summary but an attempt towards precision in own
language, without loosing sight of the content and its
meaning. A good understanding, rich vocabulary and regular
practice usually helps a candidate to do well in Essay and Precise. A candidate who is fully prepared as per the above
guidelines can hope to score over other candidates and do
well in the competition.
The preparations for the personal interview also have to be
elaborate, particularly for the post of AAO. All those who
qualify the written test are usually a cut above the rest of
the candidates and offer tough competition. Hence, an
aspiring candidate has to do well both in the written
examination as well as the personal interview. Normally, not
much of difference in the written score is there and it is the
personal interview which finally determines the selection or
otherwise of a candidate. A candidate, therefore, must be
well versed with the General Knowledge, and current affairs
and should be able to discuss and analyse the topic of
current importance and general interest. In addition to
reading good newspapers, magazines and other books, the
candidate should also have a good understanding, assimilation
and expression. Any knowledge is useless if the candidate is
unable to express himself/herself while replying to any
question. While brushing up of knowledge is essential before
the personal interview, more important is the capability to
express clearly. The candidate should also identify strong
and weak point and should be able to guide the direction of
the interview away from the weak points towards the
strengths. If the preparation is made as per the guidelines
and the candidates put in the required hard work, there is no
reason why the candidate should not succeed.
|
|
