Novi Dewan establishes a status quo of the Indian health and life insurance industry and discusses the best practices for various elements of the marketing mix. She complements secondary research with recent empirical data accentuating the emerging opportunities and challenges in the Indian Insurance Industry by using standardized interviews with opinion leaders and CEOs of several insurers.

Enthused And Encouraged By The Exemplary Success Of Life Insurance Corporation Of India The Government Of India In The Early 1970S Decided To Bring In The General Insurance Industry Also Into The Vortex Of A Nationalised Setup To Provide Comprehensive Insurance Security To The People Of India.How Effectively And Substantially Life Insurance Corporation Of India And The Four Nationalised General Insurance Companies, The Holding Companies Of General Insurance Corporation Of India, Contributed To Redesigning The Socio-Economic Fabric Of Modern India Is A Part Of The Post Independent Economic History Of India.Though These Two Organisations Have Interlaced And Intertwined Their Destiny With That Of India, The Preference Shift In The Indian Markets, New Realities Of The Global Economic Order, And Demands Arising Out Of Multilateral Trade Agreements Have All Left India With No Option Other Than Throwing Open Its Economic And Commercial Policies To Global Competition And Challenges.

The purpose of writing the book was to make an assessment of the working of the Indian General Insurance Sector following the unprecedented loss suffered by three General insurance companies to the tune of Rs.4200 during 2018-2019 under the IRDAI Regime since 2000 to2020.

Globalization has made a profound impact on the Indian insurance industry and has resulted in an overall increase in the awareness of the insuring public about the wide range and choice of insurance products and their prices offered by the competing insurers in the market. Several new and innovative products have been designed, developed and introduced into the market, particularly by private players. All these favorable conditions for the insurance sector, need an evaluation of trends in the product portfolio, to examine the growth and development in the insurance sector in the post-liberalization period. The study aims at examining the emerging trends of each product portfolio in the public sector and the private sector general insurance companies in the post-liberalization era to identify the gaps and to make suggestions to general insurance companies to increase spread penetration by improving their product portfolio performance. The study concludes that the Indian general insurance industry lacks balanced product portfolio performance, as the companies emphasize only few portfolios like motor, fire, health, etc., where the need of the hour is to have a balanced portfolio performance to sustain general insurance penetration. So, the general insurance companies should market their entire portfolio to achieve balanced portfolio performance and increased insurance penetration.

Over the years, the general insurance companies have been undertaking extensive risk management activities to safeguard the investor as well as investment. In the present-day scenario the two aspects which are of great importance to the general insurance industry are: firstly, the opportunities in the Indian general insurance market and the resulting focus of players on achieving business growth and secondly, the ongoing process of calibrated de-tariffing. Though de-tariffing has provided players with significant opportunities in tapping markets and in coming times may provide even more opportunities, it has placed the onus of correct pricing on the players themselves. This has resulted in players preparing and emphasizing more on identifying risk parameters and pricing products based on risks. The players, under the immediate response to the pressure of a free-market scenario, have dropped the rates even in hitherto non-profitable businesses. An efficient risk assessment and management in general insurance industry is very important due to the entry of private players, corresponding policy changes and the present-day fact of unprofitable books and erosion of capital resulting from unmanageable claim ratios. The present study attempts to identify the various risk management tools applied by the general insurance companies in India and performs a time series analysis of the performance of general insurance business in India in the post-liberalization and postprivatization era.

This book traces the development and analyses the performance of life insurance industry in India, since inception of this sector, using different business indicators over the years. It discusses the evolution and changing features of the Indian insurance industry in 3 phases: phase I from 1818 to 1956, phase II from 1956 to 2000 (known as the nationalisation period) and phase III post 2000 (called the post reform period). The book also measures the relative efficiency and productivity of the life insurance industry in India for the post-reform period, by employing Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Despite the fact that the life insurance sector recorded a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17% in terms of total premiums and 21% in terms of new business premium collections during the post reform period, the insurers continue to grapple with the issue of profitability. Against this background, the book presents results on the factors determining profitability of the life insurance companies using measures of efficiency and competition. By helping regulatory authorities determine the future course of action in the context of entry of foreign insurers and also in establishing a level playing field, the book has important policy implications.