Kathmandu, December 1, 2006

The latest survey conducted by a non-governmental organisation has revealed that a majority of people in 56 districts are for a “democratic republican set-up”, while a negligible number of respondents backed ceremonial monarchy and constitutional monarchy.

“About 88 per cent of the people surveyed by the Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC) in fifty-six districts opted for a democratic republican set-up,” Subodh Pyakurel, chairman of INSEC told this daily.

Only about five per cent are for constitutional monarchy while five per cent of the interviewed people favoured ceremonial monarchy.

Interestingly, the people did not have much idea about the concept of ceremonial monarchy, Pyakurel said. On a similar note, 88 per cent of the interviewees were for inclusive democracy and political representation encompassing people from all walks of life.

About 17,000 people were surveyed by INSEC and this is just an initial research being conducted by the rights watchdog.

On the human rights front, about 92 per cent were for bringing the human rights violators to book, thereby giving justice to the victims of the decade-long conflict. “The respondents felt that the victims of human rights abuses would live with the strong feeling of vengeance.

Thus, the sentiment of punishing the violators was strong among the respondents,” said Pyakurel.

Now banks to sell insurance products

The introduction of ‘bancassurance’ in Nepal appears logical as the insurance regulatory body Beema Samiti claims to be committed to following international trends in insurance.

A marriage of convenience between banks and insurers, bancassurance which entails distribution of insurance products by banks, is a successful business strategy in Europe, Singapore and Taiwan, in particular.

“We want to implement international guidelines and trends. Hence, bank assurance was bound to come here as well,” explains Samiti’s executive chairman, Madhav Prasad Upadhyay.

Skeptics are however questioning the future of bancassurance in Nepal, where both the awareness and penetration of the insurance industry remains abysmally low, due primarily to Nepal’s geophysical condition.

Often hilly and remote in nature, it renders the cost of insurance distribution prohibitively high. But some insurance pundits are pointing to this low insurance penetration precisely that gives bancassurance its niche and future.

An alliance between the existing 19 commercial banks, 20 development banks and scores of finance companies with their huge database can take care of the limitations of insurance agents selling products from house to house.