At the Congress of Actuaries in Berlin in 1906 I contributed a paper on Life Assurance in India. With certain modifications and additions, a considerable part of that paper is reproduced in that which I am now reading. My excuse for going over much of the same ground again is that the subject has not been before the Institute for many years past, and that the discussion here will no doubt elicit further information which will be useful to the profession.

At the present time India is one of the largest and most rapidly developing fields for insurance business in which the rates of mortality differ materially from those in temperate climates. Not only are there a greater number of Europeans from year to year engaging in the civil and military administration of the country and its mercantile pursuits who require the benefits of assurance, but the more Europeanized Natives themselves are also seeking the same protection.