Life insurance cos to seek rural pastures

The experts feel that regulations have affected growth of life insurance sector in the country. They state that it is the untapped rural market which offers a relief to the industry and insurance companies have a huge scope to make a dent in that area.  

Industry body Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat, said, "The industry feels that though there is some growth in both life and non life insurance sectors, yet there is huge untapped potential and therefore the government should hasten the process of bring reforms in this sector. Rural sector is untapped and the policies now should more focused on rural sector." 

Another concern of industry is that the volume of insurance has gone down heavily. The focus should be on widening the insurance coverage to bring in more people living in the remotest parts of the country under the umbrella of insurance.

"As the government is pushing the rural benefit agenda which places more money in the hands of rural citizens it is nature of insurance products to become a part of the disposable income bracket," said insurance sector expert Rahul Agrawal. 

Life Insurance Industry registered a 33 per cent growth in first quarter, however, the insurance penetration in India stood low at 3.44 per cent in 2015. When this is compared to global trends on average of Insurance penetration is 6.23 per cent.