Union Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee today called for the acceleration of micro-insurance to promote financial inclusion. Addressing the Global Insurance Summit, organised by ASSOCHAM in Mumbai today, Mr. Mukherjee said micro insurance is the essential factor of financial inclusion and he called upon the leaders of the Indian Insurance Industry to broad base the insurance market to cover rural and semi urban areas. He also said that it should be endeavour of all to ensure the reach of insurance to mandate and for meeting the social obligation. Mr. Mukherjee further said that the UPA government has laid special emphasis on insurance and has implemented insurance policies that will benefit the poor people in the country. He added by saying that many states have adopted the scheme. However he raised concern that health insurance still covers a very miniscule population of this country. Stressing on the need of disaster management in controlling catastrophic situations in India Mr. Mukherjee asked the insurance companies to be prepared to deal with any kind of catastrophic situation so that the impact of heavy losses can be mitigated. He concluded by saying that in coming 10 years insurance penetration is expected to increase in the country and the companies that pay attention to this aspect will benefit immensely. Mr. J. Hari Narayan, Chairman of Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) and Mr. T.S. Vijayan, Chairman, LIC of India were present on the occasion. Mr. Lord Turner Chairman of United Kingdom Financial Services Authority was the special guest in the function. Meanwhile, the Finance Minister held a closed-door meeting with officials of the income Tax department in view of the increasing number of Tax evasion cases being reported from Mumbai