General Awareness: Insurance and Financial Sector Core
General Awareness in the UIIC Assistant exam carries a clear insurance and financial-sector tilt, so current affairs alone will not carry the section. Expect questions on insurance principles, the regulator, nationalised banks, RBI functions, government financial-inclusion schemes and recent appointments, alongside static economy basics.
Insurance core
Insurance is a contract of utmost good faith. General insurance follows the principle of indemnity, while life insurance is not a contract of indemnity. IRDAI was set up under the IRDA Act, 1999, is headquartered in Hyderabad, and regulates insurers, brokers, corporate agents and third-party administrators. Life insurance was nationalised in 1956, creating LIC; general insurance was nationalised in 1972 through the GIBNA Act, and GIC Re is the domestic reinsurer. Foreign direct investment in insurance is permitted up to 74%.
Schemes worth memorising
PMJJBY offers Rs 2 lakh life cover at an annual premium of Rs 436 for ages 18 to 50. PMSBY offers Rs 2 lakh accidental cover at Rs 20 a year for ages 18 to 70. Atal Pension Yojana is for ages 18 to 40 and offers a guaranteed minimum pension.
Banking and payments
RBI was established in 1935, nationalised in 1949 and is headquartered in Mumbai; it manages monetary policy, currency issue and acts as banker to banks. The Monetary Policy Committee sets the repo rate. NPCI operates UPI, RuPay, IMPS, AePS and BHIM. NEFT settles in batches, while RTGS handles high-value real-time transfers.
Worked example
Asked which body licenses insurance agents and brokers in India, eliminate SEBI (securities) and RBI (banking) and select IRDAI, which regulates insurance intermediaries under its own regulations.
Traps
Swapping PMJJBY with PMSBY; mixing IRDAI's formation year, 1999, with the Insurance Act of 1938; and guessing on current affairs instead of eliminating options that belong to a different regulator.