Experts predict high growth potential for insurance industry

Amidst major disruption in the business environment brought about by technology, experts at FINCON 2017, the 18th annual insurance conference organised on Thursday by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) stated that the insurance industry has seen a significant rise in growth rate.

Addressing the inaugural session here, T S Vijayan, Chairman, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) said that the growth has been enabled due to the implementation of various schemes by the Government, such as JAM (Aadhar, Jan-dhan and Mobile), Digital India, Start-up India that were giving a boost to the sector. These initiatives were able to increase the reach of the industry to more than 12 crore customers in one year, he said.

"The biggest challenge of insurance is not on the first sale but on renewal. Analytics will help in predicting the chances of a customer going in for a renewal, or an agent continuing with the company. Another challenge in the new environment is managing manpower and relationships. The industry should be bold enough to come forward, even if it has to pay for some failure," added Vijayan.

A FICCI-BCG Knowledge Paper was released on the occasion. Alpesh Shah, Senior Partner and Managing Director, The Boston Consulting Group, presented a paper on 'The Changing Face of Indian Insurance-Bigger, Better, Faster'. He presented a hypothetical scenario of the way in which convergent digital technology would create a sci-fi like experience for the customer.

G Srinivasan, Co-chairman, FICCI Committee on Insurance and Pensions and Chairman cum Managing Director, The New India Assurance Co Ltd, foresaw phenomenal changes in the Indian insurance industry in the coming years.

"The changes will be catalysed by technology; competition; regulations; customer aspirations; and high growth. In order to attain this growth a skilled group of people with domain expertise will be needed. We don't have the infrastructure to produce those people. By 2020, however, the Indian insurance industry will be growth-oriented and profitable, customer-focused, compliant with regulations in letter and spirit, and the industry gets its status in society," said Srinivasan.