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BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
HINDUSTAN Lever Ltd is to aggressively launch its reformulated Lifebuoy soap brand, by way of novel indirect marketing in rural India, that of persuading villagers to take more care with their personal hygiene. The campaign will range across nine states, to achieve double-digit growth in Lifebuoy’s sales figures, which currently stand at around two million soaps sold daily.…

BY MATTHEW BRACE, in Sydney
A NEW precision saw is set to make plumbing, building and electrical work safer and more accurate. The Kango KS150 saw is an Australian invention and on trial release Down Under. It could be available worldwide within six months.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Union’s Council of Ministers has just approved – in principle – a proposed directive on insurance mediation. Final agreement on the legislation could come by midsummer. The directive requires that all those carrying out insurance or reinsurance mediation be formally authorised by the statutory authorities of Member States on the basis of appropriate knowledge and ability, good repute, the possession of professional indemnity insurance and financial capacity where appropriate.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has adopted a new strategy for health and safety at work for 2002-2006, which would cover new types of workplace risk, such as bullying and violence at work and stress-related illnesses. The plan also seeks to develop office and factory risk prevention programmes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A TAX break approved by the European Commission in 1995 benefiting Italy-based insurance companies operating in eastern Europe is likely to be withdrawn, following the launch of a state aid inquiry by Brussels which is expected to criticise the scheme.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
The European Commission is take legal action against France and Luxembourg in a final bid to remove the compulsory no-claims bonus system for third party motor insurance in the European Union. The two countries are now alone in the EU in sticking to a system which the Commission claims is in breach of the third non-life insurance directive (92/49/EEC) and constitutes a barrier to free competition.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Union’s Council of Ministers has unanimously agreed the proposed directive on insurance mediation, a decision that almost guarantees its passage into EU law. The proposal will now receive a second reading by the European Parliament; if it does not make many changes, final approval could come before Brussels’ political summer recess.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FINNISH government has been ordered by the European Commission to change legislation that disqualifies car passengers from insurance cover when the driver is drunk and involved in an accident. Brussels says this exclusion of passengers’ injuries contravenes the EU’s second motor insurance directive, which seeks to harmonise national regulations for the sector and to safeguard the interests of persons who may be injured in a motor vehicle accident.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
EUROPEAN Union ministers and MEP’s are considering changes to the EU’s directive on the supervision of financial conglomerates, which, claim parliamentarians, will make an Enron-style scandal far less likely in Europe. The proposed new law would cover insurance companies, investment firms and credit institutions that are part of such groups, setting rules on the amount of supplementary capital that they should command.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission announced today (Wednesday) that under the EU Merger Regulation it has approved the acquisition of the whole of the insurance business of the Deutsche Bank of Germany by the Zurich Financial Services Group of Switzerland.…