Page 12 - M1_Insurance Introduction Notes

houses in Kolkata to set up their own insurance,

thereby bringing the business further into Asia.

India with its long tradition of trade has a history

which goes back several millennia. Early forms of

insurance can be dated back to the third century BC. In

the late 18th century British insurance companies

operated on the Subcontinent through agency houses.

In 1818, a Scotsman founded the first modern

insurance company to be incorporated in India. Indian

agency houses helped spread insurance further into

Asia. The Swadeshi movement at the beginning of the

20th century led to the foundation of many Indian

owned insurance companies. The New India was to be

the first wholly Indian owned insurer. By the 1950s it

had built a global network of agencies.

From 1819 on, thanks to Thomas Stamford Raffles,

Singapore was to emerge as the new hub for trade in

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