COURTESY:
http://business.mapsofindia.com/insurance/
The
Confederation of Indian Industry states that the insurance sector of
the country has been witnessing a consistent growth rate of late and its
present worth is 41 billion US dollars.
The industry has of late achieved a yearly growth rate within 32 and 34 percent and this makes it the 5
th
best among emerging economies around the world. The various entities of
the industry are also bringing out newer products on a regular basis to
attract their customers.
As per rules, the upper limit of foreign direct investment permitted in
this sector is 26 percent. However, this has to be done through the
automatic route and the investor needs a license from Insurance
Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA).
At present there are 22 life insurers in India. The IRDA has recently
taken away the tariffs of the interest rates and this has provided
insurers greater independence when it comes to deciding the price of
their insurance policies. The insurance industry has also become more
competitive as a result.
Yet another important factor affecting this sector has been the recent financial meltdown.
India insurance industry growth in last few years
The life insurance companies have performed the best when it comes to
growth with an increase of almost 70% in new premium that has been
collected in the initial 5 months of 2012.
As per IRDA data, in April-August 2010 the insurance companies earned
$11.73 billion in new premium - in the corresponding period in the
previous year the amount stood at 6.9 billion dollars.
LIC, a state held insurer, had been the biggest profit maker at that
time with an addition of 88% to their existing business. The privately
owned insurers together had seen a leap of 34% to their policy sales.
ICICI Prudential earned 576.60 million dollars at that time. During
April-August 2009 SBI Life had earned $379.20 million in sales of new
policies and that figure went up to $531.87 million in the corresponding
period in 2010 making it an increase of 40%. HDFC Standard Life also
experienced a good growth of 54% in new sales.
IRDA data shows that between April and October 2010 the general
insurance industry experienced a year-on-year growth of 22.76% with
regards to underwritten gross premium.
The total value of that premium was 5.29 billion dollars while the same
figure stood at $4.31 billion in April-October 2009. For the public
sector companies the year-on-year growth rate was 21.09 percent between
April-October 2010 and April-October 2009.
In the same period the privately held insurers saw an increase of 25.19
percent in terms of premium collected. Among the publicly owned
entities, New India Insurance was one of the better performers with a
premium income of 916.77 million dollars in April-October 2010.
At the same period in 2009 they had earned 770.25 million dollars which
implies a growth rate of 19.04%. The IRDA Summary Report of Motor Data
of Public and Private Sector Insurers 2009-10 states that in the same
period almost 28.4 million policies were sold and the aggregate worth of
premium collected was $2.31 billion.
The health insurance sector, according to the RNCOS' research report
named "Booming Health Insurance in India" posted unprecedented growth
rates in 2008-09 and 2009-10. The report also estimates that between the
2009-10 and 2013-14 the sector would see a compound annual growth rate
(CAGR) of at least 25%.
India insurance industry - market share of leading companies
The following table shows the market share of top insurers in India in the period till April 2011:
| Company |
Approximate market share |
| LIC |
50% |
| ICICI |
10% |
| SBI |
5% |
| Bajaj |
4% |
| Reliance |
5% |
| HDFC |
6% |
| Birla |
4% |
| Max New York |
3% |
| Tata |
2% |
| Met Life |
1% |
| Kotak |
2% |
| Others |
8% |
