Life insurance premium up 41%

The premiums underwritten by the Indian life insurance industry increased by 41% for the year ended March 31, 2006, at Rs 35,89,795.51 lakh as compared with Rs 25,52,965.11 lakh for the previous year. While Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) contributed around 71% to the total premium underwritten, private players' contribution was close to 29%.
 
According to data released by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irda), the contribution of pension to the total premium underwritten was at 22.11%, annuity at 4.3% and health at 0.02%. Besides, while unit-linked premium comprised 44.78% of the total premium underwritten, non-linked or conventional insurance premiums comprised 55.22% of the total. 

For LIC, unit-linked insurance premium's contribution was 29.76% and non-linked insurance premium's contribution was 70.24%. On the other hand, for private players, unit-linked insurance premium's contribution was relatively high at 82.48% with the contribution from conventional insurance premium being 17.52%.

Among the private players, Bajaj Allianz emerged as the front-runner in terms of premium collection followed by ICICI Prudential, HDFC Standard, SBI Life, Birla Sunlife, Tata AIG, Max New York, Aviva, Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual, ING Vysya, Reliance Life, Met Life, Sahara Life and Shriram Life.