Insurance penetration cannot be done by crowding market with large number of players: Mishra

 

 

THE Government and insurance industry regulator IRDAI have been pitching for a greater insurance penetration but it cannot be done by merely crowding the market with a large number of players, All India Insurance Employees Association (AIIEA) General Secretary Shreekant Mishra said on Sunday. The Government and IRDAI have been arguing that there is a need for greater insurance penetration and every Indian should have an insurance by year 2047.

“But it has to be realised that insurance penetration cannot be increased by merely crowding the market with a large number of players. Insurance penetration essentially depends on the level of disposal income, which is unfortunately rather low in India,” Mishra said. At the same time, he also said the country’s insurance penetration is higher than in even some of developed nations and credit for this goes to LIC and general insurance companies in the public sector.

The All India Insurance Employees’ Association general secretary told reporters here that AIIEA is the largest and oldest trade union in the public sector insurance industry and represents around 85 per cent of employees in LIC and public sector general insurance companies throughout the country. Protecting and strengthening the public sector industry while taking care of the interest of the employees has been the basic objective of AIIEA, he further said.

LIC has closed its books for the year 2022-23 with yet another remarkable performance. Recording a growth of 16.75 per cent. It garnered Rs 58,632.08 crore through individual business and a record Rs 1,73,261 crore through group business.

“This remarkable performance has come in the background of a very tight macro-economic environment and budgetary proposals completely antithetical to the interest of the industry,” he claimed. Mishra said that LIC is a premier public sector financial institution in the country and has Rs 44 lakh crore of assets under management and commands over 70 per cent market share with its claims settlement ratio being one of the best in the world.