Life and Non-life insurance market in India - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

Life and Non-life insurance market in India - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The life and non-life insurance market in India is estimated to register a CAGR of approximately 7%, during the forecast period.

In the first decade of insurance sector liberalization, the insurance sector reported a consistent increase in insurance penetration from 2.71% in 2001, to 5.20% in 2009. Since then, the level of penetration has declined. Additionally, there was a slight increase in the years 2015 (3.44%), 2016 (3.49%), 2017 (3.69%), and 2018 (3.70%). The level of insurance density reached up to USD 64.4 in the year 2010, from the level of USD 11.5 in 2001. However, there was a slight decline in the level of insurance density, but it regained its position gradually to USD 74 in the year 2018, as compared to USD 73 in 2017.

The life insurance penetration had gone up from 2.15% in 2001, to 4.60% in 2009. Since then, it exhibited a declining trend till 2014. There was a slight increase in insurance penetration in 2015 reaching 2.72%, while it remained the same in 2016, increased to 2.76% in 2017, and decreased to 2.74% in 2018. The insurance penetration of the non-life insurance sector in the country has gone up from 0.56% in 2001, to 0.97% in 2018 (0.93 in 2017). Its density has gone up from USD 2.4 in 2001, to USD 18 and USD 19 in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

The life insurance industry recorded a premium income of INR 508,132.03 crore during 2018-2019, as opposed to INR 458,809.44 crores in the previous financial year, registering a growth of 10.75% (9.64% growth in the previous year). While private-sector insurers witnessed 21.37% growth (19.15% growth in the previous year) in their premium income, LIC (Life Insurance Corporation of India) recorded 6.06% growth (5.90% growth in previous year).

The general insurance industry underwrote a total direct premium of INR 169,448 crore in India for the financial year 2018-2019, as compared to INR 150,662 crores in 2017-2018, registering a growth rate of 12.47%, over 17.59% growth rate recorded in the previous year. The public sector insurers exhibited a growth of 1.28% in 2018-2019, over the previous year’s growth rate of 12.58%, whereas the private general insurers registered a growth rate of 24.25%, over 21.59% growth rate during the previous year.

During 2018-2019, life insurers issued 286.48 lakh new individual policies, out of which LIC issued 214.04 lakh policies and the private life insurers issued 72.44 lakh policies. While the private sector achieved a growth of 5.61% in the number of new policies issued compared to the previous year, LIC achieved a growth of 0.31%. The general insurers (excluding Standalone Health Insurers) have issued 1,832.74 lakh policies in FY 2018-2019, as compared to 1,702.30 lakh policies issued in FY 2017-2018, thus, reporting an increase of 7.7% during FY 2018-2019 (over 10.4% increase in FY 2017-2018).

Moreover, the public sector insurers witnessed a decline in the number of policies issued. They reported an 8.1% decrease in the number of policies issued during FY 2018-2019 (over 6.4% decrease in FY 2017-2018). Whereas, the private sector insurers reported growth in the number of policies issued at 29.7% in FY 2018-2019 (over 26.1% in FY 2017-2018). The specialized insurers reported a decrease of 33.2% in the number of polices issued, during the FY 2018-2019 (an increase of 79.2% in FY 2017-2018).

Key Market TrendsInsurance Industry is Growing Rapidly

• India’s share in the global insurance market was 1.92%, in 2018. During the same year, the total insurance premium in the country increased by 9.3%, whereas the global total insurance premium increased by 1.5%. Globally, the share of life insurance business in total premium was 54.30% and the share of non-life insurance premium was 45.70%, in 2018. However, the share of life insurance business for India was very high at 73.85%, while the share of non-life insurance business was at 26.15%.
• In life insurance business, India is at rank 10 among the 88 countries, as published by Swiss Re. India’s share in the global life insurance market was 2.61%, in 2018. Nevertheless, the life insurance premium in India increased by 7.7% when global life insurance premium increased by just 0.2%, and the Indian non-life insurance sector witnessed a growth of 14%, in 2018.
• During the same period, the growth in global non-life insurance premium was 3%. However, the share of Indian non-life insurance premium in global non-life insurance premium was at 1.1% and India ranked 15th in the global non-life insurance market.

Insurance Penetration at Global Landscape

• The Indian insurance sector is underperforming, as compared to the developed and emerging economies. Insurance penetration and density, which are the key performance indicators of the insurance industry, are especially low in India.
• Furthermore, there is a significant gap between insurance coverage and value, which highlights the high-risk state of the country. Since these vital parameters are improving at a stagnant growth rate, insurance penetration (measured as the ratio of insurance premium paid and GDP of the country), has increased from 2.71% in 2001 to 3.7% in 2018, in India.
• Although this is a significant development, considering the volume of business, it lags the penetration levels in the rest of the world (6.13%) and in the emerging Asian economies (5.62%). The insurance sector has reported a consistent increase in the insurance penetration Y-o-Y, which is expected to increase further in the future.

Competitive Landscape

The report covers the major players operating in the life and non-life insurance market in India. The market is consolidated, as the major market share is captured by the top five companies. The market is expected to grow in the forecast period, due to a consistent growth in insurance penetration and other few factors.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support

Companies Mentioned

IBM Corporation
Oracle Corporation
Internap Corporation
Packet Inc. (An Equinix Inc. Company)
Scaleway Inc.
Amazon Web Services Inc
Rackspace Inc.
CenturyLink, Inc.
LightEdge Solutions, Inc

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