Two Aditya Birla Group Companies, Birla Sun Life Insurance., a leading private life insurer and Idea Cellular Ltd., a leading cellular operator, today announced the creation of a strategic alliance, which encompasses various multiple joint activities, and promotions to provide value added services to their individual customer bases. Innovation & value added services are the key drivers for the strategic alliance.

The strategic alliance has been initiated through the launch of the Group Term Insurance Cover. This is an innovative and exciting concept where pre and post paid subscribers between 18-35 years of age get free life insurance at the click of a button. Subscribers download a Dialer tone from an exclusive bouquet specially created for the alliance based on the concept of life. With the download, and after providing certain basic details over SMS, customers will receive a free life insurance cover for a period of one year.

Addressing a press conference in Hyderabad today, Mr. S.K.Mitra, Director - Birla Sun Life Insurance & currently In-charge, said, “The demographic analysis of our customer base since inception to Oct.06 indicates that the average age of life insured is approx. 30 years. The age profile of telecom business customer is young and thus this strategic alliance will assist Birla Sun Life Insurance in developing the life insurance business for the younger age group. This alliance is an innovative & focussed effort to attract the younger generation to life insurance through a combination of fun & usefulness”.

Jointly addressing the press conference in the city today, Mr. Sanjeev Aga, Managing Director, Idea Cellular Ltd said, “The Telecom and Financial Services Sectors are among the fastest growing sectors in the country. The alliance of Idea Cellular and Birla Sun Life Insurance presents to a set of our customers a unique and attractive Insurance offer. This alliance will provide existing subscribers an attractive bonus, and will also offer a compelling proposition to new subscribers ”.

Critical Features of the IDEA-BSLI Offer:

• Subscribers must be between 18-35 years of age to avail of the offer
• Customers must be active on the system.
• One subscriber is allowed only one policy / claim.
• A policy claim for natural death is covered after 6 months
• A policy claim for accidental death is covered from Day One
• Suicide is not covered in the policy
• This promotion will run for a period of 12 weeks.

The youth market in India can be divided in 3 segments – early youth 13-21 yrs., Middle youth 22-28 yrs. & late youth 29-30 yrs. Due to opportunities, which have emerged for the middle youth market as a result of employment in BPOs, they now have higher disposable incomes. Therefore, a consciousness needs to be created in that age segment of saving for the long term. This is where a Life insurance product category becomes very relevant. It provides an opportunity for long-term savings with protection. Currently 19% of the BSLI policies are in the middle youth segment and Birla Sun Life Insurance expects this segment to grow.

About Birla Sun Life Insurance

Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Limited is a joint venture between The Aditya Birla Group, one of the largest business houses in India and Sun Life Financial Inc., a leading international financial services organisation.  The local knowledge of the Aditya Birla Group combined with the expertise of Sun Life Financial Inc., offers a formidable protection for your future. Birla Sun Life Insurance (BSLI) in its 5 successful years of operations has contributed significantly to the growth and development of the life insurance industry in India. It pioneered the launch of Unit Linked Life Insurance plans amongst the private players in India. It was the first player in the industry to sell its policies through the Bancassurance route and through the Internet. It was the first private sector player to introduce a pure Term plan in the Indian market. This was supported by sales practices, which brought a degree of transparency that was entirely new to the market. The process of getting sales illustrations signed by customers, offering a free look period on all policies, which are now industry standards were introduced by BSLI. Being a customer centric company, BSLI has invested heavily in technology to build world class processing capabilities. BSLI has covered more than a million lives since inception and its customer base is spread across more than 1000 towns and cities in India. All this has assisted the company in cementing its place amongst the leaders in the industry in terms of new business premium income. The company’s current capital base is Rs 520 crores.

About Idea Cellular

A leading GSM Mobile Services operator, IDEA Cellular has licenses to operate in 11 circles. With a customer base of over 1 crore, IDEA Cellular has operations in Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala.  IDEA Cellular’s footprint currently covers approximately 60% of India’s potential telecom market.
                                                 
 As a leader in Value Added Services, innovation is central to IDEA’s VAS factory. It is the first cellular company to launch music messaging with 'Cellular Jockey', ‘Background Tones’, ‘Group Talk’, a voice portal with ‘Say IDEA’ and a complete suite of Mobile Email Services. A frontrunner in introducing revolutionary tariff plans, IDEA Cellular has the distinction of offering customer friendly and competitive Pre Paid offerings, for the first time in India, with ‘Super Power’, 2 Minutes Outgoing Free, Lifelong Offer, and other segmented offerings like Women’s Card. ‘Lifetime Idea’ is the first and only loyalty program, for pre paid customers, introduced by a cellular operator.

Customer service and innovation drive Idea. A brand known for many firsts, Idea is the first to have launched GPRS and EDGE in the country.

The latest feather in the IDEA cap is the GSM Association Award for “Bill Flash”.   This international award makes Idea the first Indian cellular operator to win an award on this prestigious platform.

Idea Cellular is part of the Aditya Birla Group, India’s first truly multinational corporation. Global in vision, rooted in Indian values, the group is driven by a performance ethic pegged on value creation for its multiple stakeholders.

More about IDEA Cellular Ltd. at http://www.ideacellular.com

For further information on Birla Sun Life Insurance, kindly contact:
Ms. Anjana Grewal,
Sr. Vice President - Marketing & Communication,
Birla Sun Life Insurance Company Limited, Ph: 022-6678 3333.
E-mail: anjana@birlasunlife.com