Oriental Insurance to roll out five new products in 2010-11

Oriental Insurance Company Ltd, a state-owned insurance firm, plans to roll out five new products in segments like health, property and motor insurance in 2010-11.

These products are being designed for the individuals as well as corporate customers.

D Singh, general manager, Oriental Insurance said, “We will be coming out with five new insurance products in the next fiscal. The company is awaiting the nod of Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA), the insurance regulator, for rolling out these products.” Oriental Insurance is also increasingly focusing on the rural insurance market. The company, which has already started a rural insurance division, expects the rural market to contribute 40 per cent of its total premium collection.

“Oriental Insurance is opening micro offices in the rural areas to penetrate deep into the rural markets. We are working in close collaboration with the micro-finance institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and Self-Help Groups (SHGs) to promote our products in a big way in the rural pockets”, he said.Of the total pan-India premium collection of Rs 4500 crore targeted for 2009-10, Rs 1800 crore is set to come from the rural areas, Singh told Business Standard.

The premium collection target for this fiscal is a 11.1 per cent growth over Rs 4050 crore which Oriental Insurance posted in the previous fiscal. In the Orissa market, Oriental Insurance has set a premium collection target of Rs 100 crore this fiscal as against Rs 81.38 crore which it had achieved in 2008-09.

The direct agents recruited by Oriental Insurance have been the key drivers of the company's growth in premium collection. The direct agents have posted a growth of 28 per cent in premium collection compared to 14 per cent growth achieved by the conventional agents.

Presently, we have 3800 direct agents across the country and we are going to hire around 10,000 new agents in 2010-11, Singh stated. The direct agents are being recruited by Oriental Insurance under its 'Nayee Disha' initiative. Besides providing 90 hours of training to these agents as per the IRDA guidelines, Oriental Insurance has a dedicated officer called Agency Manager for a group of 10-12 agents.