Bimaquest

An Empirical Study of Health Insurance Literacy and Willingness to Pay

Cynthiya Issac — 2024-01-31

Most emerging economies have made universal health coverage their national policy priority (Prinja et al., 2019). As per the Forbes India Report (2021), only 37% of the population are however covered under either the government or private health insurance schemes, which is far from satisfactory for India. Though Covid-19 has propelled health insurance coverage, considering the rising healthcare costs, buying health insurance is a necessity for every individual. Against the above background, the current study examines the perception, awareness and knowledge, especially among the earning-class towards health insurance after the pandemic. It investigates the insured individuals’ knowledge, specifically about the policy benefits and claims procedure in Tamil Nadu. Further, the study covers the buying behavior of uninsured individuals. This survey, through a structured questionnaire, was carried out among both the insured and uninsured, with a sample size of 400 participants in Tamil Nadu. The responses rate was 97.75%.

The results of the study reveal that the perception of respondents about health insurance has changed post-pandemic as 66% of them considered it important, and, felt secured once insured. There is only a moderate awareness about health insurance, policy claims’ procedure and locations in Tamil Nadu. However, there exists health insurance awareness among the uninsured population, as they also exhibit willingness to purchase a policy, provided there is precise transparent information on policy benefits and ease of claims’ settlements. This aspect of insurance is an important take away for insurance providers as well as policy framers to accordingly create mass awareness and educate the people about health insurance.

Factors Affecting Debit Card and Credit Card Use in India

Jivan Biradar — 2024-01-31

The banking sector is introducing various financial innovations by providing various products and services to its customers. The access to debit card and credit card has increased, but their proper use is important. The current study aims is to explain the various factors affecting the use of debit card and credit card in India. The unit-level data from the 77^th round of national sample survey has been accessed and analyzed and the result has been the use of multivariate logistic regression techniques and marginal effect analyses.

The study has found that the education level, the cards’ major urban-place usage by regular wage and salaried individuals based on their source of income, the value of the financial assets and wealth quintile are in principle positively associated with their wide popularity, However, senior citizens and females are negatively associated with the use of debit card and credit card in India.

The study recommends that banks and financial institutions should take more efforts to popularize and increase the use of debit card and credit card also in rural areas. These cards should be made more user-friendly to senior citizens, and females. Furthermore, banks, financial institutions and policy makers from the eastern and western regions of India should take more initiative to increase the use of debit card and credit card.

Finally, the study recommend that banks and financial institutions should create more awareness about use of debit and credit cards and their benefits, increase the number of ATMs and reduce the annual fees charged on issuing debit and credit cards especially in remote and rural areas of the country.

Performance of Small Finance Banks

PANDYA DEEP NAVANITKUMAR — 2024-01-31

The Indian economy’s growth depends heavily on the banking sector. In recent years, the banking business has undergone numerous changes. The RBI launched small finance banks as a banking initiative to encourage financial inclusion in India. Small finance banks offer services to financially excluded populations like farmers, labourers’ low-income people, etc. This study is related to the period of six years from 2016-17 to 2021-22. The study uses descriptive statistics and the CAMEL model for the evaluation of financial performance. Descriptive statistics are analysed with the help of standard deviation and ANOVA. The CAMEL model analysis assists in determining how efficiently banks have performed in terms of each of the significant ratios including: (i) Capital Adequacy, (ii) Assets Quality, (iii) Management Effectiveness, (iv) Earning Quality, and (v) Liquidity Ratios. Based on the ANOVA the study concludes that the results of the selected banks have similar financial performance.

Retail Investors’ Investment Patterns in Mutual Funds

Preeta Varma — 2024-01-31

The impact of socio-economic factors on the Mutual Funds’ investment pattern in India with reference to the frequency and time period of investments of retail investors is attempted. The paper also recognizes the financial objectives and, proposes a model facilitating the investment behavior of the retail investors. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Chi-square test were conducted to evaluate both the significant demographic impact on investment patterns as well as the pertinent perception of the investors towards particular mutual fund/s selection. The study reveals that mutual fund is now being considered as one of the important investment options among the investors irrespective of their gender and age. The findings further support the impact of educational and income levels on the preference of investment in mutual funds. The study also reveals that the investors are inclined more towards this investment avenue mainly due to its ease of investing, higher returns and the minimum risk associated with investing in mutual funds.