An uninsuring trend

The Annual Report of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) for 2012-13 said the decreasing trend in the number of life insurance offices in India continued as in the previous year. The regulator pointed there was a net reduction in number of life insurance offices. Among general insurers, Irda expressed its concern about non-coverage of several districts by the companies.

In order to increase physical presence of insurance, Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his Budget Speech in 2013 said all towns with population above 10,000 would have one Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) office and one public sector general insurance company office. The FM had also allowed insurers to open branch offices in all cities other than tier-I without Irda's approval.

With respect to the geographical distribution of life insurance offices, highest number of offices were in the non-metro and non-urban locations. This was true for both the private sector and LIC.

When compared to life insurance, the proportion of districts covered by non-life insurers is less. But overall, there was a rise in number of non-life offices. While the four public sector non-life insurers have offices at 573 districts out of 640 districts in the country (90 per cent), the private sector insurance companies have covered only 44 per cent of the districts in the country through their offices in 280 districts.

 

As on March 31, 2013, there were 67 districts (10 per cent of districts) in the country, which did not have any non-life insurance office. Private sector insurance firms have yet not opened any offices in 382 districts.