STEREOTYPES

The definition of a stereotype is any commonly known public belief about a certain social group or a type of individual.

Stereotypes are often confused with prejudices, because, like prejudices, a stereotype is based on a prior assumption. Stereotypes are often created about people of specific cultures or races.

Almost every culture or race has a stereotype.

Stereotypes are not just centered on different races and backgrounds, however. Gender stereotypes also exist. For example, if you say that men are better than women, you're stereotyping all men and all women. If you say that all women like to cook, you are stereotyping women.

Sexual orientation stereotypes are also common. These stereotypes occur when you have negative views on gays, lesbians, and transgender individuals. People who have these negative views are often known as homophobic.

Any time you group races or individuals together and make a judgment about them without knowing them, it is an example of a stereotype. Racial remarks, sexual remarks, and gender remarks are the biggest stereotypes.

Common Stereotypes

Racial Profiling - One of the more common stereotype examples is stereotypes surrounding race. For example, saying that all Blacks are good at sports is a stereotype, because it's grouping the race together to indicate that everyone of that race is a good athlete.

Gender Profiling There are also some common stereotypes of men and women, such as:

• Men are strong and do all the work.
• Men are the "backbone."
• Women aren't as smart as a man.
• Women can't do as good of a job as a man.
• Girls are not good at sports.
• Guys are messy and unclean.
• Men who spend too much time on the computer or read are geeks.

Cultures - Stereotypes also exist about cultures and countries as a whole. Stereotype examples of this sort include the premises that:

• All white Americans are obese, lazy, and dim-witted. Homer Simpson of the TV series The Simpsons is the personification of this stereotype.
• Mexican stereotypes suggest that all Mexicans are lazy and came into America illegally.
• All Arabs and Muslims are terrorists.
• All people who live in England have bad teeth.
• Italian or French people are the best lovers.
• All Blacks outside of the United States are poor.
• All Jews are greedy.
• All Asians are good at math. All Asians like to eat rice and drive slow.
• All Irish people are drunks and eat potatoes.
• All Americans are generally considered to be friendly, generous, and tolerant, but also arrogant, impatient, and domineering.

Groups of Individuals

A different type of stereotype also involves grouping of individuals. Skaters, Goths, Gangsters, are a few examples. For example:

• Goths wear black clothes, black makeup, are depressed and hated by society.
• Punks wear mohawks, spikes, chains, are a menace to society and are always getting in trouble.
• All politicians are philanders and think only of personal gain and benefit.
• Girls are only concerned about physical appearance.
• All blonds are unintelligent.
• All librarians are women who are old, wear glasses, tie a high bun, and have a perpetual frown on their face.
• All teenagers are rebels.
• All children don't enjoy healthy food.
• Only anorexic women can become models.
• The elderly have health issues and behave like children.

Sexual Stereotypes - Sexual stereotypes, on the other hand, suggest that any feminine man is gay and any masculine woman is a lesbian. Those who believe gay stereotypes may also believe that homosexuality is immoral, wrong and an abomination.

 

Stereotyping is not only hurtful, it is also wrong. Even if the stereotype is correct in some cases, constantly putting someone down based on your preconceived perceptions will not encourage them to succeed.

Stereotyping can lead to bullying from a young age. Stereotyping is encouraging bullying behavior that children carry into adulthood.

Stereotyping can also lead people to live lives driven by hate and can cause the victims of those stereotypes to be driven by fear. For example, many gays and lesbians are afraid to admit their sexuality in fear of being judged. It is a lose-lose situation, both for those who are propagating the stereotype and those who are victims.

TYPES OF HEALTH INSURANCE

TYPES OF HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE

Types of health insurable or the fundamental policies issued by the insurance companies aiming to meet the requirements of general public are:

Medical expenses insurance: Basic hospitalization expenses are reimbursed. It covers payment of expenses related to hospitalization and the services rendered by the doctor and nursing home/hospital. Under these insurance schemes, the amin benefit is that predetermined number of days stay and hospital costs are covered.

Disability income cover: is primarily aimed at providing for the lost income during the disability period or during the treatment period. It tries to replace the income that cannot be earned due to sickness of the assured. The benefit is usually paid as a percentage of the capital sum insured and is paid weekly. The period for such compensation is short.

Long term care insurance: covers expenses related to major surgery or operations due to serious illness or disease. Major medical coverage continues protection after basic medical expenses insurance benefits have exhausted. It may add some benefits for services which is not covered by medical expenses cover. Insurance companies provide long term insurance in two major categories: Nursing home care and Community care. In community care, long term care policy provides benefit payments for the insured individuals who require assistance and stay in their homes.

Some of the popular policies are:

Individual Mediclaim Policy: also called as Hospitalization Benefit Policy. It provides reimbursement of medical expenses incurred towards hospitalization anywhere within India in case of sudden illness or accident and extends to pre-hospitalization of 30 days and post hospitalization of 60 days. This policy is available to any person in the age group of 5 to 80 years. However, children below 5 years but not below the age of 3 months can also be covered as long as one or both of the parents are covered at the same time. reimbursement is not commonly used as a claim settlement system in Mediclaim, and permitted only when the treatment is taken at a hospital or that meets the criteria prescribed in the policy

Group Mediclaim Policy: is available to any corporate association, institution and group of people provided they form the minimum number of persons to be covered under the policy. The policy holder of this type of insurance is the group itself and the premiums are payable by the group.

Overseas Mediclaim Policy: is particularly tailored to protect persons undertaking genuine overseas trips for business or holidays or studies or employment purpose. The benefit of the policy is that premium is payable in Indian currency while claims abroad are payable in foreign currency. Originally introduced in public sector general insurance companies in 1984 the policy was modified in 1991 and revised Videsh Yatra Mitra Policy was introduced in 1998. The final version of the policy covers several aspects of foreign travel that go beyond the ordinary such as loss of passport, personal accident, etc.

Other covers are:

Jan Arogya Bima Policy

Cancer Insurance

Bhavishya Arogya Policy

Hospital cash daily allowance policy, etc

 

TYPES OF HEALTH INSURANCE SCHEMES / PROGRAMS IN INDIA

Government or State based System: The largest system of health care is financed and managed by the central and state government of India. It delivers health care to the public through the diverse network of hospital, government hospitals, primary health centres, community health centers, dispensaires and speciality facilities. These facilities are officially available to the entire population either for free or for nominal charges. The central Government has been the main source of funds for primary health care facilities, whereas the states bear the major responsibility of recurrent costs, especially the costs of running hospitals, CGHS and ESIS as part of government schemes.

Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS): was introduced in 1954 as a contributory health scheme to provide comprehensive medical care to the Central Government employees and their families. Separate dispensaries are maintained for the exclusive use of the central government employees covered by the scheme. The list of beneficiaries includes all categories of current as well as former government employees, members of parliament and so on.

Employees State Insurance Scheme (ESIS): was introduced in 1948. This is an insurance system which provides both the cash and the medical benefits. It is managed by the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIS), a wholly government owned enterprise. It was made as a compulsory social security benefit for the workers I the formal sector. Now it includes all such factories which are not using power and employing 20 or more persons. Mines and plantations are excluded under this scheme.

Market Based System

General Insurance Corporation (GIC) Mediclaim Coverages: The GIC holds a major share in the market based health insurance segment. It introduced the Standard Mediclaim health insurance scheme in 1986, and became operational in 1987. This product was later on modified I 1997 to allow for premium differentials for various age groups meant for both individuals and groups. It provides various products like Mediclaim / Hospitalization Benefit Insurance Policy and Bhavishya Arogya Insurance Policy.

LIC Coverage: The Life Insurance Corporation of India introduced a special insurance programme in 1993 which covered medical expenses only from critical diseases. The plan provides health insurance against certain specified health risks and offers a great financial support during an urgent need or demand. Following are the key features of this plan,

-      Substantial Financial Protection in case of hospitalization or surgery

-      Lump sum benefit irrespective of actual medical costs

-      Increased health cover every year

-      No claim bonus

-      One can choose various flexible benefits

-      One can also choose various premium payment options

This health insurance plan provides various benefits like Hospital Cash benefit, day care procedure benefit, major surgical benefit, other surgical benefit, ambulance benefit and premium waiver benefit.

Private Insurance Company: The insurance sector was opened for private participation in 2000. Now, private players have largely existed in group health market. The private sector today provides nearly 80% of outpatient care and about 60% of inpatient care. Some private insurance companies are Star Health Insurance, Apollo Munich Health Insurance, Cigna TTK, Reliance General Insurance Co, etc. These companies provide various health insurance plans to the public.

Employer Provided Insurance System: Employer managed health facilities and the reimbursement of health expenses by employers are the other means of health insurance in India. Generally, the public sector undertakings and big industrial houses have their own hospital and provide medicines etc., across the counter, normally, within the company premises / township. In addition, there are various medical reimbursemnte plans offered by employers for private medical expenses in the private sector like commercial bank, autonomous institutions, etc. Some organizations may have self-insurance system known as medical benefit or medical allowance system. Insurance coverage under this system vary according to the employee’s salary or designation. Overall, the performance of this system in India has been satisfactory.

NGO System: In India, health facilities are also provided by voluntary and charitable or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like Self-Employed Women’s’ Association (SEWA), Child in Need Institute (CNI) etc. The health care facilities offered by these organizations is a part of their main objectives. Most of the time they create awareness and associate themselves wit the major health insurers.  

IRDA REGULATIONS | HEALTH INSURANCE

 IRDA REGULATIONS

The Government of India in April 1993, appointed the committee of Reforms in Insurance sector with Shri. R. N. Malhotra, who was a former Governor of RBI. As per the committee reocmmendations, the government set up a regulatory body known as ‘Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA). IRDA was formed by an Act of Indian Parliament known as IRDA Act 1999.

The main aim of IRDA is ‘to protect the interest of the policy holders, to regulate, promote and ensure orderly growth of the insurance industry and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto’.

IRDA Health Insurance Regulations 2016

Pilot Products: IRDA’s new regulations governing health insurance now allow health insurance companies to offer pilot product. The products will be offered to policy holders for a maximum period of 5 years, after the expiry of the period, the products will go back to functioning as regular health insurance product.

Data disclosure: In addition to repeated claims, which include claims that couldn’t be paid back due to incomplete documentation / failure on the policy holder’s part to follow up with the insurer. This helps to improve transparency.

Discounts: In order to motivate and increase awareness regarding the importance of health insurance, people who purchase health insurance early in life and have regular renewals will get the benefit of discounts in premium and / or on medical services like diagnostics, consultations etc.

Credit linked health insurance: The benefit provided by these plans is dependent on the condition that upon the death of the inusred, their nominee can utilize the claim amount of the policy to pay back the loan. As per the new regulation, the insurance companies offering credit linked group health insurance products for maximum of five years.

Portability: As per the new regulations, insurance agents will not get any commission if customers choose health insurance portability. They will continue to get commission when a policy holder renews the same insurance policy regularly.

Combi plan: the new regulations allow the health insurance companies to offer combi plans which can be a hybrid of any health and life (like endowment, money-back, ULIP) plan.

INSURANCE PORTABILITY

 

Insurance portability means, an insured person who is not satisfied with the products and services of his / her insurer provider can change the existing insurance company with a new insurance company. The main benefit of this facility is that the policy holder can opt for a similar product from the new insurance company. Currently this facility of insurance portability is applicable only in health insurance policies in India.

At the time of portability, the policyholder won’t lose the benefits which accumulated in the existing policy. Still the process of transferring the policy from one insurer to another insurer is not that easy. The major problems people face in this process are: coverage against previously existing diseases, claim history and present health status of the proposer or insured. IRDA approves the policy holder for portability and has given some conditions regarding that.

Health insurance portability was introduced by IRDA in 2011. In order to avail this facility, the policyholder has to apply to the insurance company where he wishes to port his/her policy, at least 45 days before the premium renewal date of existing policy. Before porting his/her policy, the policy should know the following:

Process: After the submission of application to the insurance company it will ask them to submit medical records and claim history from the existing insurer. The existing insurer has to submit within 7 days through the sharing portal developed by IRDA. The insurance company has to take decision about underwriting the policy within 15 days. It they fail to do so, they will be bound to accept the application.

The Insurer’s Rights: The insurance company has the right to reject any port-in requests. All requests for portability are treated as new and are subject to scrutiny by the underwriter.

The terms and conditions of the policy will differ from insurer to insurer.

 

 

MEMES

MEMES

An element of a culture or system of behaviour passed from one individual to another by imitation or other non-genetic means.

An image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by internet users, often with slight variations.

 

A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices, that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme.

Aaron Lynch described seven general patterns of meme transmission, or "thought contagion":

1.   Quantity of parenthood: an idea that influences the number of children one has. Children respond particularly receptively to the ideas of their parents, and thus ideas that directly or indirectly encourage a higher birth rate will replicate themselves at a higher rate than those that discourage higher birth rates.

2.   Efficiency of parenthood: an idea that increases the proportion of children who will adopt ideas of their parents. Cultural separatism exemplifies one practice in which one can expect a higher rate of meme-replication—because the meme for separation creates a barrier from exposure to competing ideas.

3.   Proselytic: ideas generally passed to others beyond one's own children. Ideas that encourage the proselytism of a meme, as seen in many religious or political movements, can replicate memes horizontally through a given generation, spreading more rapidly than parent-to-child meme-transmissions do.

4.   Preservational: ideas that influence those that hold them to continue to hold them for a long time. Ideas that encourage longevity in their hosts or leave their hosts particularly resistant to abandoning or replacing these ideas, enhance the preservability of memes and afford protection from the competition or proselytism of other memes.

5.   Adversative: ideas that influence those that hold them to attack or sabotage competing ideas and/or those that hold them. Adversative replication can give an advantage in meme transmission when the meme itself encourages aggression against other memes.

6.   Cognitive: ideas perceived as cogent by most in the population who encounter them. Cognitively transmitted memes depend heavily on a cluster of other ideas and cognitive traits already widely held in the population, and thus usually spread more passively than other forms of meme transmission. Memes spread in cognitive transmission do not count as self-replicating.

7.   Motivational: ideas that people adopt because they perceive some self-interest in adopting them. Strictly speaking, motivationally transmitted memes do not self-propagate, but this mode of transmission often occurs in association with memes self-replicated in the efficiency parental, proselytic and preservational modes.

 

Memes first need retention. The longer a meme stays in its hosts, the higher its chances of propagation are. When a host uses a meme, the meme's life is extended. 

The reuse of the neural space hosting a certain meme's copy to host different memes is the greatest threat to that meme's copy. 

A meme that increases the longevity of its hosts will generally survive longer. On the contrary, a meme that shortens the longevity of its hosts will tend to disappear faster. However, as hosts are mortal, retention is not sufficient to perpetuate a meme in the long term; memes also need transmission. 

DEVELOPING AND EMERGING ECONOMIES

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES / MARKETS

A developing country is a country with a less developed industrial base and a low Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreement on which countries fit this category. The term low and middle-income country (LMIC) is often used interchangeably but refers only to the economy of the countries. The World Bank classifies the world's economies into four groups, based on Gross National Income per capita: high, upper-middle, lower-middle, and low income countries.

EMERGING COUNTRIES / MARKETS

An emerging market is a market that has some characteristics of a developed market, but does not fully meet its standards. This includes markets that may become developed markets in the future or were in the past.

An emerging market economy is the economy of a developing nation that is becoming more engaged with global markets as it grows. Countries classified as emerging market economies are those with some, but not all, of the characteristics of a developed market.

• An emerging market economy is an economy that is in the process of becoming a developed economy.
• Emerging market economies typically feature a unified currency, stock market, and backing system, and are in the process of industrializing.
• Emerging market economies can offer greater returns to investors due to rapid growth, but also offer greater exposure to some inherent risks due to their status.

 

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EMERGING COUNTRIES AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

The fundamental difference between these classifications is that emerging nations are growing rapidly and becoming more important in world economics, while developing nations are struggling and still need help from trade partners around the world.

Developing countries that qualify as emerging markets – include Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey. 

HEALTH INSURANCE

Health insurance is defined as ‘coverage that provides for the payments of benefits as a result of sickness or injury. It includes insurance for losses from accident, medical expenses, disability or accidental death and dismemberment’.

Health insurance is a safeguard against rising medical expenses. A health insurance policy is a contract between the insurer and an individual/group in which the insurer agrees to provided specified health insurance at an agreed premium. Premium can be paid as lumpsum or in instalments. Health insurance mainly covers two types of benefits:

Related to the reimbursement of medical expenses related to specific diseases

Related to hospitalization

Globally health covers operate in two ways: cashless and cash reimbursement.

In India, health insurance is provided mainly in the form of Mediclaim policy to individuals or groups, associations or corporate bodies. Besides Mediclaim the other popular covers in India are Bhavishya Arogya Bima for post retirement medical cases, Jan Arogya Bima for small covers of the lower income groups and cancer policies. With the advent of the private sector, both cashless and cash-reimbursement systems of claim settlement are available. Hospitals, nursing homes and medical practitioners are increasingly seeking tie-ups with insurances to offer their service under health and medical insurance plans.

CHARACTERISTICS OF HEALTH INSURANCE

Health insurance known as Mediclaim offers protection against unforeseen and unexpected medical emergencies.

The health insurance takes care of cost of treatment, hospitalization and other medical services. Some schemes provide support for pre and post hospitalization. E.g. cost of medical tests, purchase of medicines.

The health insurance contract may be renewable annually or monthly.

As per section 80D of Income Tax Act 1961, the premium paid for Health Insurance Plan is deductible from taxable income. Maximum deductible limit for individual is Rs.15,000 to Rs.20,000 in case of senior citizens.

Health insurance my be provided through a government sponsored social insurance program or by private insurance companies.

It may be purchased on a group basis e.g. manufacturing company takes policy to cover its workers.

The type of health insurance policy, amount of premium and claim details are specified in the beginning.

A critical illness rider option to cover medical expenses may be added whereby the amount insured in the policy will be given to the customer, in case he/she encounters that critical illness during the time period of the policy.

BENEFITS OF HEALTH INSURANCE

Benefits to individuals:

Risk cover: Health insurance helps to cover various risks related to health. It covers disability, long term nursing or custodial care needs.

Protection against rising health expenses: In view of the increase in the cost of health care and treatment, health insurance is become increasingly essential. A majority of private hospitals are beyond the reach of normal middle class families, here, insurance companies provide financial assistance to individual/groups for medical treatment.

Daily hospital cash allowance: Insurance companies provide additional financial protect to take care of expenses not covered under the policy like food and travelling. For e.g. SBI’s Hospital Daily Cash Policy provides daily cash benefit of Rs.2000 (Rs. 4000 in case of ICU/Accidental hospitalization) per day.

Peace of mind / Minimizes worry: Health insurance along with many other forces contributes to the wealth creation of a policy holder as he is relieved from worry and it will increase his/her efficiency.

Tax benefit: It provides tax benefit under section 80D of IT Act 1961. This will help reduce the tax burden on individual tax payer.  

Expenses related to organ donor: Most of the health insurance companies cover organ transplant surgery as a part of their regular health insurance plans. Very few companies put a cap on these expense or offer it as an add-on benefit.

 

Benefits to society:

Health insurance benefits society too as it assists economic development.

Mobilization of savings: Each individual in the pool pays relatively small insurance premiums, from his/her savings. Such pooled funds are then let to business, governments in the form of loans.

Substitution of government security program: Health insurance acts as a substitute for government security programs as it directly provides the same security at a cost to the insured. Health insurance policies relieve pressure on social welfare systems. Hence, the Government reveal this fact by granting tax relief to policy holders.

Effective use of Capital Allocation: Insurance facilitate economies of scale in investment. Large investment projects require huge financial capital. Insurers provide funds to those projects whose prospects are bright. Insurers often meet the financial needs of such large projects from their accumulated premium collections. 

ROLE OF GENERAL INSURANCE ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

 Insurance companies (both life and general insurance) contribute significantly to the economic development. The role of general insurance on economic development is as follows:

Insurance helps to protect capital employed in the industry and economic activity by protecting the assets life plant machinery from perils and risks.

General insurance removes the worry and fear associated with several business risk. This encourages entrepreneurial expansion of an economy.

Banks and financial institutions lend money to industrial and commercial undertakings only if it is collateral securities like property are fully insured.

Before the acceptance of a risk the insurer surveys and assesses the risk. Engineering surveys play a vital role in preventing industrial accidents and losses.

It increases productivity and saves national wealth because insurers are associated with various institutions who engage in activities like cargo loss prevention, industrial safety, road safety, etc.

Indian general insurers operate in more than 30 countries through agencies, branches and subsidiary which increase foreign trade.

India is an agriculture-based economy. General insurance gives the agriculturists the ability to carry on business in the face of uncertainties of weather, crop failure ad risk associated with livestock.

GLOBAL ECONOMIC FLOWS

 Global flows have been a common thread in economic growth for centuries, since the days of the Silk Road, through the mercantilist and colonial periods and the Industrial Revolution. But today, the movement of goods, services, finance, and people has reached previously unimagined levels. Global flows are creating new degrees of connectedness among economies—and playing an ever-larger role in determining the fate of nations, companies, and individuals; to be unconnected is to fall behind.

In 2000, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) identified four basic aspects of globalization: trade and transactions, capital and investment movements, migration and movement of people, and the dissemination of knowledge.

Flows of goods, services, and finance have increased to a enormous extent. Now, one in three goods crosses national borders, and more than one-third of financial investments are international transactions. In the next decade, global flows could triple, powered by rising prosperity and participation in the emerging world and by the spread of the Internet and digital technologies. (Scenarios show that global flows could reach $54 trillion to $85 trillion by 2025, more than double or triple their current scale.)

Within each type of flow, it is found that knowledge-intensive ones are growing faster than the labor-intensive or capital-intensive variety. Exchanges of goods such as aircraft and automobiles, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and microelectronics, as well as professional services and foreign direct investment flows, are growing faster than others.

While the last era of globalization was driven largely by sourcing low-cost production, the next era will center on the rise of the global knowledge economy.

The spread of the Internet and of digital technologies is transforming all types of flows and creating new ones. Global online traffic across borders grew and could increase eightfold more by 2025.

Digital technologies, which reduce the cost of production and distribution, are transforming flows in three ways: through the creation of purely digital goods and services, “digital wrappers” that enhance the value of physical flows, and digital platforms that facilitate cross-border production and exchange. The enormous potential impact of digitization is only beginning to emerge. Consider that international Skype-call minutes grew to 40 percent of the present level of traditional international calls in just a decade. Or that cross-border e-commerce has grown to represent more than 10 percent of trade in goods in less than a decade.

The network of global flows is expanding rapidly as emerging economies join in. Rising incomes in the developing world are creating enormous new centers of consumer demand, global production, and commodities trade, as well as sending more people across borders for business and leisure.

Existing routes of flows are broadening and deepening and new ones emerging as more countries participate.

Not only more countries but also more players are participating in global flows. Governments and multinational companies were once the only actors involved in cross-border exchanges. But today, digital technologies enable even the smallest company or solo entrepreneur to be a “micromultinational,” selling and sourcing products, services, and ideas across borders.

Individuals can work remotely through online platforms, creating a virtual people flow.

Microfinance platforms enable entrepreneurs and social innovators to raise money globally in ever-smaller amounts.

We now take for granted that we live in an interconnected world, but a closer examination of a broader range of global flows reveals a more complex and rapidly expanding web of connections than is commonly understood. The landscape now offers more entry points to a far broader range of players than it did in the past. Not only the largest global companies and investors but also emerging countries, small businesses, and even individuals and entrepreneurs can play a larger role. For participants of all types—countries, cities, businesses, governments, and individuals—participating in global flows offers major economic opportunities. But smart strategies and policies will be needed to take full advantage—and to avoid being left behind.

The three major barriers to international trade are natural barriers, such as distance and language; tariff barriers, or taxes on imported goods; and nontariff barriers. The nontariff barriers to trade include import quotas, embargoes, buy-national regulations, and exchange controls.

The movement of goods and services, finance, and people has reached previously unimagined levels. Global flows are creating new degrees of connectedness among economies—and playing an ever-larger role in determining the fate of nations, companies, and individuals. To be unconnected is to fall behind.

HOME INSURANCE

HOME INSURANCE

Each one’s home is special to them as their life revolves around the home. Besides being a investment, home is a part of life’s journey. However, natural calamities and man made dangers can threaten the security of the home. Home insurance provides the financial support in case of any damage due to unforeseen circumstances.

A home insurance is a type of property insurance that is used to protect an individual’s home against damages such as fire, theft, etc. This policy also provides cover against accident in the home.

Features of Home Insurance:

Comprehensive insurance coverage protects the home against damage from fire, theft, storms, etc.

It covers the building and contents also

The value of home is calculated based on replacement cost

It has the option to add coverage for valuable personal property like jewelry, precious stones, etc.

It has different optional coverage, so it provides tailor coverage to suit the individuals needs and lifestyle

 

BENEFITS OF HOME INSURANCE

Protection against natural disaster: Home insurance helps reimburse all such losses occurring due to home damage against natural disaster.

Coverage of Household belongings: The next big benefit of home insurance is, protection of contents of the home. This insurance cover guarantees against the risk of loss of household belonging due to any calamity, peril or mishap.

Additional risks: Under home insurance, additional riders are available for covering loss of expensive jewelry or in case anyone gets injured on the property.

Coverage of damage: This insurance covers the damage to home against fire or any other unwanted events. It also covers loss or damage to personal property due to theft or other covered event.

Other benefit: A home insurance coverage includes more than just the physical structure of the home. It may provide coverage for an attached structure, personal property like furniture, electronics, guests, etc.

 

NEUROSCIENCE IN ADVERTISING RESEARCH

 Neuroscience in Advertising Research

Neuroscience: A New Perspective:

Martin Lindstrom’s 2008 book Buyology makes a strong claim: that neuroscience will play a revolutionary role in research and marketing in the future. As a result, many marketers are challenging accepted modes of advertising development and research on the grounds that “neuroscience says” that what we’ve done before is wrong. However, we don’t believe that marketers need to turn their backs on tried-and-true research techniques in favor of the apparent objectivity of neuroscience. Rather, marketers should use neuroscience-based research in conjunction with established techniques when (and only when) it adds value. If used in isolation, such methods can be hard to interpret, but when combined with qualitative or survey-based research, they can add a powerful new dimension of insight.

Which Methods to Use

In choosing among neuroscience–based techniques, we have found it useful to ask the following questions:

• Does the approach tell us something meaningful about brands or marketing?

• Does it tell us something we don’t already know, and enough to justify its cost?

• Is it practical and scalable?

From among the many new techniques that have emerged from recent learning on the workings of the brain, we have identified three that meet all three of these tests. These are: implicit association measurement, eye-tracking, and brainwave measurement. When used in conjunction with established methods, these techniques can yield insights that lead to more effective marketing.

 Implicit Association Measurement

While implicit association measurement is not strictly a “neuroscience” technique, what it shares with other truly biometric methods is the principle of inferring consumers’ responses, rather than asking direct questions. The approach relies on the fact that the brain stores information in networks of ideas and responses. An experience of a brand Implicit association techniques help reveal the “raw” ideas stirred up by brands and ads before any filtering for sense or social desirability has taken place.

When to Use Neuroscience

Clearly, these three neuroscience-based research techniques have value to offer. We believe that they tend to add the most value when dealing with needs and situations such as the following:

a. Sensitive material: Qualitative and survey methods are most vulnerable to distortion when sensitive material is involved. Methods that don’t rely on explicit questions can reveal unstated attitudes more effectively.

b. Abstract or “higher order” ideas: Consumers may find it difficult to express some of the abstract ideas at the heart of some brands’ positionings. Implicit association methods are useful to probe for ideas that participants might be too self-conscious to verbalize, or simply unable to articulate.

c. A need to probe for transient responses to ads or brand experiences: Consumers are great at talking about the gist of an ad or brand, but they may not be able to explain how they got there. Eye-tracking and EEG can help researchers fill in the blanks by identifying the focus of attention and illustrating the highs and lows of emotional and cognitive response to a piece of creative.

d. A need to understand consumers’ feelings: When questions are framed correctly, consumers can talk about their feelings in response to surveys and qualitative research. But neuroscience-based methods can add an additional level of detail about the timing of these responses and their origins.

Known as consumer neuroscience, or neuromarketing, this type of investigation probes people’s unconscious responses to advertising in order to help identify winning ads. For instance, the United States Postal Service is working with researchers using imaging machines to see if direct mail lights up certain parts of the brain that e-mails don’t. Spanish language broadcaster Univision has paid dozens of young Hispanics to don EEG caps and measured their brain waves while they watched ads in English, Spanish, or Spanglish to better understand their impact. The idea of neuromarketing started to win wide attention, although there’s conflicting evidence about how well it works.

A 2011 report by the Advertising Research Foundation, paid for by companies including Clorox and General Motors, concluded that the technology was not yet “bona fide advertising science.”

The techniques—which include cameras that spot facial expressions—are meant to replace pen-and-paper surveys or focus groups, in which consumers are asked if they can remember ads and whether they plan to buy the product shown.

That business, known as copy testing, is worth about $750 million a year globally and is part of a larger global market for ad effectiveness research estimated at $2.5 billion, says David Brandt, executive vice president for advertising effectiveness strategy at Nielsen.

Since 2011, Nielsen has operated a division called Nielsen Neuro, which uses EEG measurements of brain waves to study ads at 11 laboratories located around the world. According to Brandt, Nielsen has studied more than 100 commercials and linked the EEG results to actual changes in product sales. The division also carried out the work for Univision, which found that Hispanics reacted better to Spanish-language ads. Brandt says neuromarketing technologies account for about 4 percent of the copy testing market but are growing quickly.

More than a dozen companies, most of them small, offer neuroscience tools to customers today. Perhaps the biggest name in the field is Nielsen. The company has earned patents on new types of EEG caps and is trying to come up with cheaper, more portable ways to measure consumer reactions, hoping that if they become as cheap as paper surveys and can be used on a wider scale—in malls, not just in labs—they will come to have more impact.

The Super Bowl project is an annual event for Innerscope, which emerged out of research at the MIT Media Lab that looked at the physiological responses of poker bluffers and speed daters. The company works with several technologies, but on game day it was using a belt to measure subjects’ heart rate and breathing while electrodes taped to their fingers tracked galvanic skin response, some of the same measures polygraphs use to spot the heightened emotions caused by telling lies. At Innerscope, these readings are combined into what the company calls an “engagement trace”—a line that moves up and down as an ad progresses, reflecting the viewer’s emotional state, says Carl Marci, a psychologist who is chief science officer at the company. The more emotional the viewer, says Marci, the better the chance he or she will remember an ad.

TV companies are looking for technologies that can protect their $78 billion in annual U.S. ad revenue against changing viewer habits and help match the sort of click-by-click tracking advertisers enjoy on the Web, says Dan Aversano, senior vice president for client and consumer insights at Turner Broadcasting, the owner of CNN and an Innerscope research partner. “We can bring that into television,” Aversano says.

At its research lab in New York City, Turner has belted up participants who use a smartphone or tablet while watching TV and found that although they looked at the TV less during ad breaks, they remained engaged with the TV audio track. In a report it began circulating last year, Turner recommends that its advertisers consider snapping viewers’ eyes back using “sirens, alarms, screams” just before a brand name appears.

 

Physiological rating scales

Physiological measures detect how consumers react to messages, based on physical Reponses. Eye-tracking systems have been developed to monitor eye movements across print ads. Another Physiological measures is a pyscho-galvanometer , which galvanic skin responses (GRS) .,GRS is a measure of minute changes in perspiration which suggests arousal related to some stimulus in this case , an advertisement .

Voice response analysis is another high-research procedure. Inflections in the voice when discussing an ad indicated excitement and other physiological states . Other less frequently used physiological measures record brain wave activity , heart rate , blood pressure and muscle contraction.

 

1. Pupil metric testing

Perceptoscope or Pupilometric Devices Record changes in pupil’s dilatation. Dilatation indicates reading and attention. Contraction shows his dislike to what is being read. It evaluates interesting appealing visual stimuli.

It is developed by Eekhard Hess and James Polk. Left eye is photographed o record dilatation.

2. Eye-movement camera

It is used in advertising research; this equipment tracks the movement of the eye over press advertisements, showing the path which the eye takes and indicating the sequence of interest that the features arouse. It measures the eye movement over the layout of test ads. The route taken by the eye is noted. The pauses are noted. The areas of interest and attention can be judged.

 

3. Galvanometric Response:

It means change in skin conductivity due to changes in moisture content (perspiration); measured by current flow as indicated on a galvanometer. This change may have a correlation with psychological stimuli (e.g. fear or other emotion) and arguably may provide a measure of a respondent’s reaction to an advertisement

4. Voice pitch analysis

A type of analysis that examines changes in the relative frequency of the human voice that accompany emotional arousal. Greater the deviation from the person’s normal (baseline) voice, the greater the emotional intensity of the person’s reaction to a stimulus, such as a question. Used in packaged research, to predict brand preference, and to determine predisposition to buy a product. It is also now used to measure consumers’ emotional responses to advertising. However, the validity of Voice Pitch studies is questionable.

5. Brain Wave Research:

Brain pattern analysis or Brain wave analysis equipment are non-invasive and resembles a pair of headphones. It takes brain wave measurement continuously from the surface of the head and converts them into an Engagement Index (EI) five times per second through a proprietary algorithm NASA. It helps in evaluating winners from also-rans, which ads do a better job of engaging the viewers.