After the success of Jeevan Astha, a well-thought insurance scheme, the state run Insurance major Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) on Saturday launched yet another money back plan, Jeevan Varsha, a close ended guaranteed addition money back policy.

The plan, that offers survival benefits for every three years, is going to start from February 16 and close on March 31 with two policy terms of 9 years and 12 years. LIC Zonal Manager (East) R. R. Dash expects good response to the plan and said that LIC has set a target to earn Rs 1,500 crore premium from the new policy.

Zurich - Jacques Aigrain, the head of Swiss Re, the world's second largest re-insurer which suffered huge losses in 2008, has resigned his post, the company announced Thursday. He will be succeeded by current deputy CEO, Stefan Lippe.

Lippe, a German national, has been with Swiss Re for 25 years.

Earlier this month, the re-insurer said it had managed to raise capital, including a 3 billion-Swiss-franc (2.58 billion dollars)- investment from US financier Warren Buffet.

The group was considering taking another 2 billion from other investors.

The capital was needed in light of losses over 2008 reaching a whopping 1 billion francs, with the company now struggling to maintain its AA credit rating.

With the intention to strengthen the volatile bourses, the public sector insurer Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has decided to pump in an additional over Rs 4,000 crore in the stock markets by March 2009.

Mr. T.S. Vijayan, the LIC Chairman said, “We have made investment of Rs 31,000 crore till December and it may cross Rs 35,000 crore (by the end of March).”

But, even the huge amount of fund infusion in 2009 is fairly less by the standards set by LIC itself.

Max New York Life Insurance has entered into a strategic business alliance with Indian Mercantile co-operative Bank as referral partner relationship.

Under the arrangement, Max New York Life Insurance will utilize the branch network of the Bank to sell its life insurance products.

Software services firm 3i Infotech Ltd. has entered into strategic partnerships with ICICI Lombard, Airtel and Max New York Life to offer a comprehensive range of services to rural consumers under the I-SERV brand.

It may be noted that through I-SERV stores, consumers especially in remote rural areas will get an access to a range of value added services that will improve their quality of life. These stores will deliver services related to Banking, Insurance, Mobile, Education, Ticketing and Utilities.