HDFC Standard Life for claims delay

India's insurance regulator Wednesday imposed a fine of Rs.500,000 on Mumbai-based private life insurer HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Ltd for not having in place effective procedures to comply with regulations and delaying settlement of a death claim.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) also directed HDFC Standard Life to '...put in place effective claim settlement procedures and take all such measures that deem fit for both pro-active and timely settlement of all types of claims'.
HDFC Standard Life has to confirm to IRDA within 15 days the action taken to comply with the IRDA (Protection of Policyholders' Interests) Regulations.
The IRDA order came on a complaint lodged by Kunti Devi against HDFC Standard Life with IRDA for non-settlement of claim April 14, 2009.
IRDA, in turn, forwarded the complaint to the company July 29, 2009.
Nearly six months later, HDFC Standard Life informed about the repudiation of the claim on the grounds of concealing material facts.
Perusing the records, IRDA said the claim was repudiated 12 months after it was lodged and on investigation, the regulator found the timeline followed by HDFC Standard Life to decide on death claim is on the higher side.
The regulator also found during its investigation that HDFC Standard Life has been sitting on the admissibility of individual death claims for more than six months and in the case of a group insurance policy, one claim is outstanding for more than a year.
During a personal hearing, HDFC Standard Life's CEO Amitabh Chaudhary submitted to IRDA that the company has reduced the turnaround time for death claims from 34 days in 2009-10 to 26 days in 2010-11 and 86.35 percent of the investigated claims are settled within that time.
According to IRDA, life insurers have to initiate and complete claims investigation within six months from the date of lodging of a claim.
The insurer should pay or dispute the claim, giving reasons within 30 days of getting relevant papers and clarifications, it said.

Rakhi to make Ramdev lose

After yoga guru Baba Ramdev called her confessions of love an ochi baat, the self-proclaimed hottest item girl Rakhi Sawant has challenged him to come on 'Bigg Boss' and she'll make him lose his virginity.
After Baba Ramdev publicly snubbing Rakhi Sawant on singing reality show, Rakhi Sawant has challenged him to accompany her to celebrity reality show 'Bigg Boss'.
With full confidence she stated that when Ramdev comes face-to-face with her adaayein, he will definitely lose his virginity.
"I can make Ramdev lose his virginity," said Rakhi.
She added that if Colors invite her as a wild card entry in 'Bigg Boss 5' along with Ramdev then she will show him her capabilities.
Rakhi confesses that she loves Ramdev despite his not-so-appealing looks.
"There are many people who tell me that they find Ramdev quite ugly. Par dil laga gadhi se toh pari kya cheez hai! I still love him! After all, he fought for corruption and I lost weight because of his yoga. He should be proud that the hottest item girl of India has fallen for him despite his sad looks!"
Rakhi plans to shave off Baba's beard: "I don't like his beard, and I would like to know how he looks

Falsified Beauty

The title's a bit of a misnomer, actually. Beauty queens, by definition, are false in the strictest sense of the word, for the most part. There's not much under that gown, or indeed, under the bikini, that's au naturel, let alone the award-winning answers of noble aspirations of feeding the poor and the hungry.

So why the big hue and cry about Miss Universe's crown princess of this year? Allegedly, this year's Miss Universe Leila Lopes used falsified documents to gain entry (Gasp! Who woulda thunk?) and win the contest (Double gasp! Sacrilege!) To be precise, she obtained documents that suggested she was a student of a British business school, even though she's never lived outside her home country, Angola, to enable her to participate in the beauty contest.
Beauty pageants, even those that have garnered a loyal following over decades now find themselves mired in scandals and controversies, thanks to overambitious aspirants who will not let a small thing like their citizenship, risque photo-shoots, drug possession, unsavoury connections to moneyed men and other skeletons in their closet come in the way of their beauty queen dreams.
But scandal is no stranger to beauty pageants - they just seem to be surfacing more often than they used to during the times of Aishwarya Rai and Sushmita Sen. Last year's Miss USA and Miss Universe contender, Rima Fakih, was asked to hand over the title and the crown after pictures of her pole-dancing in a 'Stripper 101' contest made news. Hollywood actress Vanessa Williams was stripped of her Miss USA crown for similar reasons in 1984. Some contestants have actually lied about their ages or marital status. Check out this detailed slideshow on the controversies that have dogged beauty pageants over the years.
However, does the blame lie squarely with the contestant? Or are the organizers equally to blame for not doing sufficient background checks? For every claim of falsifying information that crops up after a beauty queen is selected, there's a counter claim of racial bias or political motive.
Whatever be the case, beauty contests don't seem to have the dazzle and the flair of the nineties, back when our Bollywood divas ruled supreme on the international stage. There was something sincere, if overeager and judge-friendly, about Aishwarya Rai's pearly whites or Sushmita Sen's poise and from-the-heart quotes. These pageants didn't seem so, well, manufactured. Now, not only do our country's representatives seem awkward and ill at ease, they also lack a certain je ne sais quoi that any beauty queen must possess in order to charm her way into the hearts of millions and subsequently win the crown. That aside, why do you think beauty pageants are this

Celebrates Of Ganesh Chaturthi

With chants of 'Ganapati Bappa Moraya', lakhs of Mumbaikars Thursday welcomed Lord Ganesha on the first day of the 11-day festival that saw idols of the elephant-headed god being installed in homes and at thousands of marquees across the city. Some of the prominent marquees and idols have been insured for crores of rupees.
Religious fervour and gaiety marked the beginning of the Ganesh festival and the morning saw devotees consecrating the idols, reciting mantras, filling the air with holy sound waves, and the evening was geared up for the first 'maha aarti' of the day.
According to state Home Minster R.R. Patil, nearly two lakh idols were installed across the city -- of these 10,350 are at Ganesh Mandals (associations) and 1,80,650 belong to local households.
Since last week, nearly 250,000 big and small idols started arriving in the city from artisans' studios in different parts of Mumbai and Raigad for the festival, said Brihanmumbai Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Samanvaya Samiti (BSGSS) president Naresh Dahibhavkar.
With the biggest Ganesh mandals getting an insurance cover worth crores, the GSB Mandal in King?s Circle of central Mumbai has insured its pandal, devotees and the deity?s ornaments for a whopping Rs.222 crore this year.
?Including a `Standard Fire and Special Perils with Terrorism?, the mandal has also insured the members of the trust, an all-risk policy for the gold ornaments of the deity and personal accident insurance for devotees,? said trustee Satish Nayak.
The insurance is for 15 days starting Aug 27. Last year, the insurance cover for the mandal stood at Rs.49.5 crore. This year, it is around five times more.
Over 12,500 registered associations, apart from the 40,000 private housing complexes, have been preparing for the festival for the past few weeks.
The festival, which is the most popular in the state, attracts hundreds of domestic and foreign tourists.
Among the various pandals across the city, `Lal Baughcha Raja? (King of Lalbaug area) in central Mumbai, with a 12-foot tall idol towering over the devotees, attracted huge crowds. The pandaal was insured for Rs.14 crore. The Lord Ganesha here is believed to fulfil the wishes of its devotees.
The mandal, which entered its 78th year since inception, is thronged by several prominent personalities from politicians to top bureaucrats.
The other popular mandals in the city include 'Ganesh Galli', just a stone's throw from the Lal Baughcha Raja, Khetwadicha Raja on Grant Road, and Chandanwadi Ganesh mandal in Kalbadevi.
Film and television stars like Nana Patekar, Govinda and Jackie Shroff also celebrated the festival with enthusiasm. Several Bollywood celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Bipasha Basu, and Anupam Kher sent online greetings to their friends, family and fans.
In the wake of the July 13 blasts in Mumbai, security has been beefed up across the city for the festivities.