General Awareness
General Awareness in NICL AO is bounded and therefore scoring: banking and insurance awareness, the Indian economy and Budget, RBI policy, financial markets, static banking facts, and current affairs of roughly the last six to eight months. Insurance awareness carries more weight than in a pure bank exam because the recruiter is a public sector general insurer.
Core facts to hold
- General insurance was nationalised in 1972 under the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Act, grouping 107 insurers into four subsidiaries - National, New India, Oriental and United India. GIC Re is the national reinsurer.
- IRDAI, headquartered in Hyderabad, is the insurance regulator, created by the IRDA Act, 1999 and statutory from 2000. It is not the banking regulator.
- Insurance penetration = premium ÷ GDP; insurance density = premium ÷ population. Never interchange them.
- Social security schemes: PMJJBY (life cover), PMSBY (accident cover), APY (pension).
- RBI tools: repo, reverse repo, CRR, SLR, OMO. The MPC has six members and a 4% inflation target with a ±2% band.
Worked example
A question asks which body regulates premium rates and solvency for Indian insurers. Answer: IRDAI. Reasoning: RBI regulates banks and payment systems, SEBI regulates securities markets, PFRDA regulates pensions, and only IRDAI holds the statutory mandate over insurer solvency and product filing.
Traps
- Confusing GIC's 1972 nationalisation with IRDAI's 1999/2000 creation.
- Mixing insurance penetration with insurance density.
- Answering current affairs from stale memory instead of revising recent appointments, schemes and indices.
- Assuming the RBI sets insurance premium rates.