The Bengal Chamber organised the annual seminar on Indian Insurance Industry on 10th June 2015 at The Park. Globally, India ranked 40th in terms of insurance penetration and 79th in terms of insurance density during FY14. Given the under-penetrated market in the country, there is scope for significant growth. The raising of the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) limit from 26% to 49% in the sector is expected to bring in capital to the country from foreign partners, boost operational efficiency and lead to more competition in the realm of customer coverage in rural and semi urban areas while increasing employment growth.
The non-life insurance industry had underwritten a total premium of Rs. 70610 crore in India for the year 2013-14 as against Rs. 62973 crore in 2012-13, registering a growth of 12.13 per cent as against an increase of 19.10 per cent recorded in the previous year. Still Non Life Insurance penetration and per capita insurance premium is very low and there is a huge potential for growth. The under-penetration is driven by a lack of overall financial awareness, lack of understanding of general insurance products, low perceived benefits, and propensity to purchase insurance based on reactive drivers such as insistence by financers, statutory requirements, etc. Health insurance is an important domain where penetration has not been enough particularly in tier II & tier III cities and rural India.
The premium collection in Health segment continued to surge ahead at Rs. 15663 crore in 2013-14 from Rs. 13,975 crore of 2012-13, registering a growth of 12.08 per cent. However, the market share of health segment which is 22.18 has remained more or less at the same levels of previous year which was 22.19 percent. One of the major concerns of health insurance segment has been the consistently high Incurred Claims Ratio (ICR) reported by the segment, which stood at over 90 per cent for the past three years thereby making the sector highly unprofitable. Another major concern in health insurance business is the skewed distribution of health business across various States and Union Territories. There is also an increasing number of fraud cases which creates a bottleneck for the growth of this industry.
Mr. Suresh Mathur, Senior Joint Director, Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) graced the occasion, as the Chief Guest. Mr. Anuj Agarwal, MD & CEO, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Co. Ltd. graced the occasion as the Guest of Honour. The Summit has also witnessed the deliberations of eminent speakers like Mr. Shashwat Sharma, Partner, KPMG Advisory Services; Mr. M Anand, Executive Director - Marketing, SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd.; Mr. Alok Kalra, Head- Marketing, Reliance Life Insurance Co. Ltd.; Mr. Prabhat Bajaj, Vice President & Head – Corporate Agency and Brokers Channel, Birla Sun Life Insurance Co. Ltd. ; Dr John Harrison, Director, Reed Group- Australia; Mr. M Vasantha Krishna, General Manager & Director, National Insurance Co. Ltd. and Dr. Amitoj Singh, Head- Health, Universal Sompo General Insurance Co. Ltd.
The Summit has also witnessed the participation of a large audience and eminent bankers and was widely covered in the print and electronic media.