Maha, Tamil Nadu lead states pack in insurance penetration

Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have retained their top two positions in terms of general insurance premium collection and penetration, while Karnataka has replaced Gujarat at the third place in 2014-15 fiscal.
According to the data from General Insurance Council, Maharashtra was at top with total premium collection of Rs 19,336 crore and insurance penetration of 1.15 per cent. Tamil Nadu was second with premium collection of Rs 8,238 crore while insurance penetration was at 0.84 per cent.
Karnataka toppled Gujarat in 2014-15 in terms of general insurance penetration. The penetration in Karnataka stood at 0.98 per cent against Gujarat's 0.71 per cent.

Gujarat with a premium collection of Rs 6,306 crore lost it out to Karnataka, with a premium income of Rs 6,847 crore, as the third largest non-life insurance market for the reporting period.
This is also against the fact that the Karnataka economy at Rs 7,02,131 crore in 2014-15 was smaller than of Gujarat's which stood at Rs 8,85,000 crore.
"Gujarat is an industrialised state. Still it is due to the relative positioning dependant on the various aspects of product sales," ICICI Lombard General Insurance chief for underwriting and claims Sanjay Datta said.

Predominant industrial and commercial activities have reflected in the respective states' premium collection in the year 2014-15, the data showed.

"In Karnataka, motor and health have shown better growth on the premium collection than Gujarat during FY15 and hence its improved positioning in the ranking," General Insurance Council secretary general R Chandrasekaran told PTI.
Delhi was at fifth place with premium collection of Rs 5,797 crore but the insurance penetration was the highest at 1.28 per cent.
Uttar Pradesh improved its tally to sixth from seventh in terms of mobilising total insurance premium. The state with GSDP of Rs 9,76,297 crore has generated a total premium of Rs 4,859 crore up by around 10 per cent, taking its insurance penetration to 0.50 per cent.

Rajasthan is the only state which improved position by two notches from ninth to seventh in 2014-15. With GSDP of Rs 5,74,549 crore, Rajasthan produced Rs 3,605 crore of total general insurance premium, up 8 per cent.
The state had an insurance penetration of 0.63 per cent and density of Rs 525 in 2014-15.