Private sector expands retail insurance
The retail insurance business has picked up in the post financial sector reforms period and the retail segment has overtaken the corporate segment in the last five years.
The entry of the private sector has changed the entire game plan, according to CR Muralidharan, member of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda).
On a year-on-year basis, liabilities and personal accident insurance have grown 26 and 22 per cent respectively.
In the last two years, health and motor insurance has grown rapidly at about 45 per cent. Last year, the premium amount of motor and health insurance stood at Rs 12,900 crore and Rs 5,000 crore respectively.
However, “this is only a tip of the iceberg,” he said adding that the retail base of the insurance sector has to grow in the coming years.
Speaking at the launch of ‘Our Oriental - MyTVS Emergency Roadside Assistance Value Added Service’ here on Thursday, Muralidharan said earlier insurance business used to be mostly a bulk market driver. The focus shifted to retail and other segments following the entry of the private sector.
Chairman and managing director of Oriental Insurance Company, N Ramadoss, said the new scheme was the first-of-its-kind in the Indian general insurance industry.
It would provide round-the-clock emergency roadside assistance from MyTVS at no extra cost for all motor policy package holders of the public sector insurance company.
He said the value-added service would be available only for private and passenger carrying cars, which were less than 10-year-old. It was initially launched in Tamil Nadu in May, this year, and subsequently extended to Kerala and Karnataka and now to Andhra Pradesh. It would be extended to the rest of India by next month.
TVS & Sons Customer Centric Car Services Business president, R Srivatchan, said so far 20,000 complaints had been attended under the scheme.
Across India, the company would be present in 1,200 locations with 2,500 authorised service providers. “We are also going to have our own service centres,” he said.