INSURANCE
India’s Life insurance sales surge 14% Y-o-Y to Rs 4.18 lakh crore
Feb-22-2018

India’s Life insurance sales surged 14% year-on-year to Rs 4.18 lakh crore from Rs 3.66 lakh crore and Non-life insurance grew 31% to Rs 1.30 lakh crore, according to IRDAI data. Life insurance density grew from 41% three years ago to 46.5% in 2016-17 and insurance density in the general insurance sector also increased from 11% in 2013-14 to 13.20% in 2016-17. When it comes to insurance density, India fared poorly in comparison to other countries and India has coverage of $46.5 for every citizen, far below China ($189.9), Thailand ($222), Brazil ($195.5), South Africa ($615), Japan ($2,803), UK ($3,033) and US ($1,724).

In terms of life insurance penetration, India with 2.74% rolled past China (2.34%), Sri Lanka (0.52%), Brazil (2.28%) and Russia (0.25%) for the year ended March 2017. Countries like Taiwan (16.65%), Hong Kong (16.20%), South Africa (11.52%), United Kingdom (7.68%), France (6.06%), were ahead of India in terms of insurance penetration, while Australia (2.99%), US (3.02%) were nearly on par.

In life insurance, India’s total first premium collected increased 27% to Rs 1.75 lakh crore from Rs 1.38 lakh crore. However, the number of policies issued dipped marginally to 265 lakh from 267 lakh. Motor and health continued to be the biggest contributors to sector growth, in general insurance. Of total gross direct premium generated for 2016-17 of Rs 1.28 lakh crore, motor contributed Rs 50,250.53 crore (40%) and health contributed Rs 34,526 crore (27%). Premium from other segments contributed 24% (Rs 30,895.72 crore) primarily because of the growth of crop insurance.



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