Growth of Indian Insurance Industry in the Era of Liberalisation

The insurance sector is one of the most promising sectors in India. Overall premiums sustained an average growth rate of 10.62 per cent during the period after liberalization of the sector in 1999 till 2009. This was one of the most steady growth patterns witnessed amongst emerging economies in Asian as well as global insurance markets. Higher per capita income, domestic savings and availability of more instruments for parking surplus funds has been facilitating the growth in the activities of insurance sector in India. Indian insurance industry with the largest number of life insurance policies in force in the world, the penetration of insurance as a percentage of GDP stood at 5.2 per cent as of March 2009 as against 1.2 per cent in 2000. In the light of these developments in the insurance industry, this paper signifies the issues of growth of Indian insurance sector particularly in the post liberalization era.