Abstract
With the advent of the Internet, online processes are replacing conventional models in our society. The greatest impact in online technology has been achieved by e-commerce. E-commerce is attractive both to buyers and sellers as it reduces search costs for buyers and inventory costs for sellers. In this paper we investigate the impact of e-commerce on the insurance industry in India. The recent growth of Internet infrastructure and introduction of economic reforms in the insurance sector have opened up the monopolistic Indian insurance market to competition from foreign alliances. We study the evolving scenario in the insurance industry in India and identify the features of online insurance that improve the conventional insurance model and thus, makes it more attractive for the Indian insurance industry to go online.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
123 Bima. URL: http://www.123bima.com.
Assure India. URL: http://www.assureindia.com.
Bima Guru. URL: http://www.bimaguru.com.
Bima Online. URL: http://www.bimaonline.com.
Dasgupta, P. and R. Das. (2000). “Dynamic Service Pricing Using Brokers in a Multi-Agent Economy.” In Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems. Boston, MA, USA, pp. 375–376.
Dasgupta, P. and R. Das. “Dynamic Pricing with Limited Competitor Information in a Multi-Agent Economy.” In Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer, Vol. 1901, pp. 299–310.
Dealtime. URL: http://www.dealtime.com.
Dolan, R. and H. Simon. (1999). Power Pricing. New York: Free Press.
E-Health Insurance. URL: http://www.ehealthinsurance.com.
Funfrocken, S. (1999). “Protecting Mobile Web-Commerce Agents with Smart Cards.” In Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Agent Systems and Applications. Palm Springs, CA, USA, pp. 90–102.
General Insurance Corporation of India. URL: http://www.gic.nic.in.
Gobioff, H., S. Smith, J. Tygar, and B. Yee. (1996). “Smart Cards in Hostile Environments.” In Proceedings of the Second USENIX on Electronic Commerce. Oakland, CA, USA, pp. 23–28.
Hirshleifer, J. and J. Hirshleifer. (1997). Price Theory and Applications. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Holzhey, T., T. Trauth, U. Birkmaier (eds.). “The Impact of E-business on the Insurance Industry: Pressure to Adapt-Chance to Reinvent.” Swiss Reinsurance Company Research Report. URL: http://www.swissre.com/e/ebusiness.html.
Hotelling H. (1929). “Stability in Competition.” Economic Journal 39, March, 41–57.
Information Institute of India. URL: http://www.iii.com.
Insweb. URL: http://www.insweb.com.
Insure Zone. URL: http://www.insurezone.com.
Indian Market Research Bureau. (1999). “Management Summary of Insurance Consumer's Buying Behavior.” Report. September.
Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority. URL: http://www.irdaindia.org.
Kephart, J., J. Hanson and A. Greenwald. (2000). “Dynamic Pricing by Software Agents”. Computer Networks 32(6), 731–752.
Life Insurance Corporation of India. URL: http://www.licindia.com.
Mehr, R. (1986). Fundamentals of Insurance. Illinois: Irwin Publishers.
My Simon. URL: http://www.mysimon.com.
National Insurance Corporation of India. URL: http://national.nic.in.
NASSCOM Survey Report. (2000). “Internet and E-commerce Scenario in India.” URL: http://www.nasscom.org.
New India Assurance Company, India. URL: http://newindia.nic.in.
Quicken Insurance. URL: http://www.insuremarket.com.
Quotesmith. URL: http://www.quotesmith.com.
Varian, H. (1999). “Market Structure in the Network Age”. In Conference on Understanding the Digital Economy. Washington, DC, USA, May.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dasgupta, P., Sengupta, K. E-Commerce in the Indian Insurance Industry: Prospects and Future. Electronic Commerce Research 2, 43–60 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013335901218
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1013335901218