Rel Life plans Rs 50 per month premium insurance cover

COVER FOR ALL Mumbai: Nano seems to be the perfect vehicle for India Inc to reach the 'bottom of the pyramid' of this vast economy. After the Tata car and a planned SIP option in one of Sahara's Mutual Fund schemes, Reliance Life Insurance is now in the process of rolling out a unit-linked insurance plan with premiums as little as Rs 50 per month.      Structured for the rural market and the urban population who mainly live on daily wages, Reliance Jan Samriddhi Plan is a group plan which is being sold through micro-finance institutions (MFIs), NGOs and self-help groups (SHGs). Since it is targeted at those at the lower income level, the life insurer will guarantee returns at the start of the policy. "The guaranteed return will be linked to the yields on government securities at the beginning of the year,'' said Malay Ghosh, president, Reliance Life Insurance. The scheme is part of the insurer's social and rural sector obligations that every insurer has to meet.      Under the Jan Samridhhi scheme, an insurer can pay a premium as low as Rs 50 per month. However, Ghosh said that for a large number of people in India who are daily wage earners, paying Rs 50 at one time could be a difficult proposition. To address this, the MFIs, NGOs and SHGs have devised ways to collect Rs 2 or more everyday from these people. Once the money is collected from the insured group, it will be transferred to the insurance company. Not only is the money guaranteed to the insured, the scheme does not have a surrender penalty. "It is a savings product which has an in-built accident insurance cover,'' Ghosh said.