BCC&I organized a summit on “Indian Insurance Industry: Road Ahead” on 10th June at the Chamber Premises, which was the second initiative in the insurance sector by the Bengal Chamber in recent times. Eminent speakers included Mr. S B Mainak, Managing Director, Life Insurance Corporation of India; Mr. A. V. Girija Kumar, Officiating Chairman cum Managing Director, National Insurance Co. Ltd.; Mr. Srinivasan Iyengar, COO, Reliance Life Insurance Co. Ltd.; Mr. Uco Vegtor, CFO, Exide Life Insurance Co. Ltd.; Mr. Amit Jain, CFO, Birla Sun Life Insurance Co. Ltd.; Mr. Suresh Mahalingam, Member- Group Management Centre, Rajesh Wadhawan Group; Mr. Swaraj Krishnan, MD & CEO, Magma HDI General Insurance Co. Ltd.; Mr. Rakesh Kumar, General Manager, The New India Assurance Co. Ltd. and Mr. Jimmy John, Representative for South Asia, Asia Insurance Review & Middle East Insurance Review.

The theme of the Summit was, “Necessary Facilitators for Growth”, which was a very apt theme given the fact that there has been a tremendous shift in the overall operations of the industry in recent years and even from the Central Government special emphasis has been given on financial sector reforms including Insurance. The Inaugural Session focused on the future road map for the insurance sector. Session I focused on “Indian Life Insurance: Trends and New Avenues”. Since the opening of the sector in 2001, Indian life insurance industry has gone through two cycles -- the first one being characterized by a period of high growth and a flat period. The sluggish period being experienced today by the Indian life insurance companies brings to fore the big challenge of profitability. The session focused on various ways of increasing profitability in the Life Insurance sector.

Session II focused on “Indian Non-Life Insurance: Opportunities & Challenges”. Speakers spoke about multitude of factors that have adversely impacted the industry profitability over the last five years like price detarrification, joining of new companies thereby increased competition, focus on growth by the insurers across the industry leading to higher bargaining power of the intermediaries and limited control on claims cost among others. While the Indian general insurance industry has evolved significantly over the past decade or so, the insurance penetration and insurance density levels are significantly lower than the developed as well as comparable developing countries.