Genesis

A casual discussion on a Saturday evening in the month of June 2011 between Mr Raghavendra Mittha Ashok and Mr Vasuki K S from Narayana Hrudayalaya at Gayathri Bhavana Banashankari 2nd Stage Bangalore (registered head office of Akhila Karnataka Brahmana Maha Sabha ) sowed the seed to bring in a unique, affordable and robust health, personal accident and life insurance security and cover for the Brahmin Community in the state.  

Since we have a very large percentage of people from among   Priest, Cooks, Agriculture and Daily Wage background, besides rich, affluent and very high Stata of wagerours . We also have thousands of  people who are retired from Government Services, Public Sector Organizations, Teaching, etc who don’t have any security enabled due to lack of awareness during their times. This Medical, Personal Accident and Life Insurance Project was thought to be implemented in the interest of the community and people because the current premium costs are very high and unaffordable to lot of people which has exposed the not to take proper treatment on time and also carry out the last rights in case of death since it has become a costly affair.

Keeping the above mentioned in mind, Mr Raghavendra Mittha Ashok along with his friends, well-wishers and mentors of AKBMS ( Late Sri C V L Shastry, Late Sri V N Subba Rao, Mr Raghunandan T N , Mr Hari Prasad H M, Mr Rajshekar G Rao, Mr Satish K P, Mr Prakash H V, Mr Raghavendra R, Mr Manjunath S, Mr Chandrashekar K, Mr Prasanna R S N, Mrs Bhanumathi R G) , carried out lot of ground work by traveling extensively in the state and by interacting with many people soliciting their feedback on this project. Based on the positive feedback and responses from the people, the journey of SAMARA Welfare Trust started.

First of all people appreciated the name SAMARA chosen since it was designed to unite, build harmony, peace and to carry all the sub sects within the Brahmin Community together who are practising and following different philosophy’s ( Adwaita, Dwaita and Vishishtadwita ), also the exact meaning of the word SAMARA ( Conflict / War ) getting transformed to SAMARASYA ( Harmony, Peace and Unity), having monthly payment schemes would really help families since it will not have big burdens for making payments and most of all the premium amount being very less with more added features was the need of the hour.

The proposal was First discussed with Mr M N Venkatachaliah( Former Chief Justice of India) who was happy after hearing the concept and also gave recommendations on what more features can be included in the insurance schemes that would benefit the people within the community.

The proposal was then discussed with Mr A S Jayasimha and Mr Subbanarasimha who also appreciated the concept and joined hands to take the movement further.

As a group of 4 people we had series of meeting and then started laying down the mile stones to be met, of looping in more people and how to proceed further. During this time a few people joined hands with us and would like to recognize and thank them all  ( Sri Sathyadhan Achar Katti, Sri V BhanuPrakash Sharma, Sri Ganesh Ganapathy , Mr Gopal B Hosur, Dr A S Prasanna, Mr U B Venkatesh, Dr Uday Garudhachar, Dr Kamini Rao ) for spending a lot of time, providing valuable feedbacks and suggestions.

The 1st milestone was achieved on 18th December 2013 at Sri Sathya Pramoda Annex Hall where we had representatives of all various sub-sects coming together and discussing about the insurance project and totally announced support for launching this Unique  project.

The journey to get the Medical Insurance, Personal Accident and Life Insurance Policy then started. We found a TPA company by name M/s Spurthi Meditec TPA Solutions Limited at Rajajinagar Bangalore with the help of Mr Hari Prasad H M. The CEO ( Dr Bhargava ) and Director ( Mr Satish Kumar ) of the company were very happy hearing to our thoughts, vision and went out of the way to bring in a-dditional features of having a dedicated 24/7 365 days Call Center for our Project, having  Arogya Mitras in all the districts of Karnataka, negotiated with Pharmacy Shops to get 15 %  cash discount on the total bill, 15 % discounts at Diagnostic Centers, all pre-existing diseases to be covered from day 1, and getting around 400 + hospitals with special prices throughout the state after having a series of discussion with many Insurance Companies and Subject Matter Experts.

During this phase we would like to highlight  the greatest successes achieved of being the First group

• The premium cost being the cheapest in the State which covers both medical treatments and surgeries.
• To get Infertility cover from Day 1 as part of the Medical Insurance without any additional cost. This would have not been possible without the help of Dr Kamini Rao and M/s Spurthi Meditec TPA Solutions Limited.

The 2nd milestone was achieved on 27th March 2014 at Sri Raghavendra Swamy Mutt Jayanagar 5th Block Bangalore where the SAMARA Welfare Trust got officially registered, Medical Insurance Agreement was signed and exchanged with United India Insurance Company and a Service Level Agreement was signed and exchanged with M/s Spurthi Meditec TPA Solutions Limited.

Ever since then the 2 Authors ( Justice M N Venkatachaliah and Mr Raghavendra Mittha Ashok )  along with the 7 Trustees ( Mr Gopal B Hosur – President , Mr A S Jayasimha – Treasurer, Mr Raghavendra Mittha Ashok – Secretary, Mr Subbanarasimha, Mr U B Venkatesh, Mr Vijaya Kumar, Dr A S Prasanna ) of SAMARA Welfare Trust  have spent a lot of time in framing policies, procedures, guidelines, have shared responsibilities, raising funds, designing of website, socialising the project across the state, building awareness about the trust and its projects within the community, etc.

A few call outs and appreciation:

• Special thanks to Mr Vasuki K S for sowing the seed to provide a health, life security cover to entire Brahmin Community, if possible through AKBMS.
• Special thanks to the Author, Trustees and Office Bearers Of SAMARA Welfare Trust for coming forward by having faith, encouraging, motivating and showing confidence in Mr Raghavendra Mittha Ashok, the projects designed and in this Trust. 
• Thanks to Mrs Sunayana Raghavendra Mittha who has played a major role since May 2012 by being in background on creating documents, presentations,  co-ordinating with people & companies and also in designing the insurance product to a great extent.
• Thanks to Mr Seshachandrika for preparing the contents for the website and brochures.
• Thanks to Mr Dinesh Joshy for volunteering to be the auditor of the trust.
• Thanks to Mr Sudhesh Pai for providing legal assistance and support for the trust.
• Kudos to Mr Srinivas Chalageri for coming forward to be the full time operations manager of the trust by giving up his full time job to serve the community and also for relocating from Raichur to Bangalore.
• We remain indebted to eminent scholar Shri Atmakur achrya for philosophical obbriviations .