DEC. 22, 2002
 Cover Story
 Editorial
 Features
 Trends
 At Work
 Personal Finance
 Managing
 Case Game
 Back of the Book
 Columns
 Careers
 People

Two Slab
Income Tax

The Kelkar panel, constituted to reform India's direct taxes, has reopened the tax debate-and at the individual level as well. Should we simplify the thicket of codifications that pass as tax laws? And why should tax calculations be so complicated as to necessitate tax lawyers? Should we move to a two-slab system? A report.


Dying Differentiation
This festive season has seen discount upon discount. Prices that seemed too low to go any lower have fallen further. Brands that prided themselves in price consistency (among the consistent values that constitute a brand) have abandoned their resistance. Whatever happened to good old brand differentiation?

More Net Specials
Business Today,  November 24, 2002
 
 
Breathe Easy
Guard your health, not just physiologically, but also monetarily. Costs are set to rise, and health insurance offers exactly what you need.

Rajesh Saxena, 42, sat late in the office, huddled over his desk. He was in a hurry to finish the latest assignment before his vacation. Wife Mahima and daughter Shruti had been waiting for months for this trip, as he had finally managed to squeeze some time out from his busy schedule. But then, something happened. Just as he was shutting his filing cabinet, reaching for his suitcase with the other hand, he felt a sharp pang streak across his chest. Before he knew it, everything started blurring right before his eyes. Years of late nights, tense deadlines, junk food and indulgent partying had caught up with him. His cardiac muscles had decided to call it quits.

Saxena considers himself lucky, now that he has the bright real faces of his family around him, by his bedside. He still has his pulse. The blur is gone. But the bill for the bypass operation and post-operative care has ripped his finances apart. His bank balance is nil, and his wife is selling the car to clear his debt. You can't blame the money managers of course, what with the stockmarkets uncomfortably ensconced at 2,900 levels for most of October and the first half of November.

Most Basic Need
It happens to the most thoughtful of us. A functional body is something we take for granted for most of our lives. Caught up in the exigencies of our daily rigmarole, we keep putting the health insurance agent off-till we come to grief, ruing the days past.

''You never know what can happen to whom anytime, irrespective of the age,'' says Sandhya Rajan, a 60-year-old housewife, whose family's health is insured for the past 10 years. ''The very fact that we have a cover gives us a great sense of security,'' says she.

Nothing can assuage the mental drain a family suffers from when a loved one falls critically sick. With health insurance, at least you're free of the financial headache. Bills already run into lakhs, and if the Indian healthcare sector starts resembling America's, costs would rise further. It makes sense for any society to pool risks and share costs. Which is what insurance does. Now, at last, there's choice too.

Medical cover in India is really a sickness cover and not strictly a medical cover

Mediclaim
The most common medical insurance product in the market is Mediclaim, marketed by the four subsidiaries of General Insurance Corporation of India-New India Assurance, United India Assurance, Oriental Insurance, and National Insurance. Any Indian aged five-80 can take a Mediclaim policy. Children aged three months to five years can also be covered under a parent's policy.

Mediclaim provides for reimbursement of expenses, within the coverage limit (you opt for anything from Rs 15,000 to Rs 5 lakh as the sum assured) incurred on account of hospitalisation in India for treatment of any illness/disease/accidental injury (not specified in exclusions) suffered during the policy period. Typically, a Rs 1 lakh cover for a 30-year old healthy male should cost just Rs 1,400 odd for a year. As you age, the premium rises.

There are family packages as well, and group policies for corporates.

 
1 2

    HOME | EDITORIAL | COVER STORY | FEATURES | TRENDS | AT WORK | PERSONAL FINANCE
MANAGING | CASE GAME | BOOKS | COLUMN | JOBS TODAY | PEOPLE


 
   

Partnes: BESTEMPLOYERSINDIA

INDIA TODAY | INDIA TODAY PLUS | SMART INC
ARCHIVESCARE TODAY | MUSIC TODAY | ART TODAY | SYNDICATIONS TODAY