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International Journal of Informative & Futuristic Research ISSN: 2347-1697

ON LIFE INSURANCE INDUSTRY AS
PER INDIAN PERSPECTIVE
Paper ID IJIFR/V4/ E3/ 004 Page No. 5391-5400 Subject Area Management
Life Insurance, Industry, GDP, Regulator, Gross Premium, Aggressive
Keywords
Marketing

Research Scholar,
Meenu Chawla MM Institute of Management (MMIM),
Mullana(Haryana)-India

Abstract
Insurance industry contributes to the financial sector of an economy and
also provides an important social security net in developing countries. The
growth of the insurance sector in India has been phenomenal. The insurance
industry has undergone a massive change over the last few years and the
metamorphosis has been noteworthy. There are numerous private and
government insurance companies in India that have become synonymous
with the term insurance over the years. Offering a diversified product
portfolio and excellent services the many insurance companies in India have
managed to make their way into almost every Indian household. Keywords:
Life Insurance, Substandard, Competitiveness, GDP, Indigenous, Aggressive
Marketing, ULIP, Penetration, Pushed Insurer, Gross Premium.Internet and
online policy purchase is a new trend that has inspired the players to be
more focused in their business. High in volume and low in margin is going
to be the ways towards policy procuring. Rural, social and Micro insurance
is a new avenue to be thought of.This paper discusses the new trends and
challenges that the present industry is facing. Our study is only limited to
life insurance sector. The suggestion and recommendation will help both
academician and industry personnel to re- engineer their thought in
insurance sector.

I. INTRODUCTION
Insurance is one of the demanding financial products in India. Its basic motto is to protect
the family of any uncertainty in life. So it is long term investment and need knowledge
about that. Indian life insurance is too old. It is there from British Period and after

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nationalization; it has come fully under Government.In the post liberalization era, insurance
has attracted any private players from different parts of the country to start business India.
India as a country has potential for growth of this business. With the upcoming of regulator
in the year 2000, the business in India became more streamlined. Large players along with
customer choice results severe competition Life Insurance Corporation of India in one end
and ICICI Prudential life insurance from private sector on the other end has taken maximum
market share from both category. Product innovation, profitable growth, multi-channel
distribution and ethical practices in business are few factors to be considered. Regulation
from Government and research in this sector many times a challenge for the existing
players1.According to Mr J. Hari Narayan, Chairman of insurance watchdog IRDA, Indian
insurance industry in set for some serious changes. Mr. Narayan said the Indian insurance
industry had matured from its state of childhood to early adulthood. He said that in countries
like UK, the agents have adopted themselves to latest form of marketing and very soon such
changes will also be introduced in India. With an annual growth rate of 15-20% and the
largest number of life insurance policies in force, the potential of the Indian insurance
industry is huge2.
The total investible funds with the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) are almost 8
per cent of GDP. The LIC employs more than one lakh employees who in turn supervise
through 2,000 branch offices more than five lakh agents. Yet these numbers believe the fact
that life insurance in India is spread very thinly and 'shallowly', and its role as a mobiliser of
long-term savings is underdeveloped. Insurance companies in the developed world also sell
products for old age income security in the form of pensions and annuities. The absence of
pension coverage for a vast majority of Indians, also points to an important gap to be filled
by the life insurance sector. In the 1990s however, LIC was put on its toes due to winds of
liberalisation unleashed by the report of the committee on insurance reforms, and
subsequent talk of allowing private entry into insurance sector. This has led to introduction
of some new products and some innovations in customer service. But LIC largely remains a
slow moving, over-staffed behemoth. For several decades now.it has sold overpriced and
underpriced policies, and has tried to combine business objectives (being a corporation) and
social objectives (being a state monopoly). There are big gaps in its product range and along
with liberalisation threaten to undermine its position. However, despite the usual public
sector handicaps, LIC has the potential to turn its big size and reach to its decisive
advantage in the wake of private sector entry into life insurance business.3

II. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study is done briefly to analyse the recent trends of life insurance and their impact on
the insurance industry.

1
BhagabatBarik and Rakesh Patra, Emerging Trends in Insurance-A Study in Indian Life Insurance Industry ,
Abhinav National Monthly Refereed Journal of Research in Commerce & Management, 3(6): 7.
2
SrimanSrichandan, Indian Life Insurance Industry- The Changing Trends ,International Journal of Research and
Development - A Management Review (IJRDMR), 3 (1): 62.
3
AjitRanade and Rajeev Ahuja, Life Insurance in India Emerging Issues , Economic & Political Weekly,34(3/4): 203.

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III. OBJECTIVE OF STUDY

1. To study the present life insurance scenario and their growth drivers in India
2. To study the present trends in life insurance sector
3. To suggest feasible measures for improvement in the sector

IV. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Exploratory research methodology is used here to analyze the data. Data was collected from
multiple sources such as books, journals to understand the Life insurance industry. In this
paper, we have referred previous research articles. Apart from this, we have visited different
websites and professional magazines. Some more data was collected through personal and
telephonic interviews and discussion with leading corporate people. So it is purely based on
available secondary data.

V. GROWTH DRIVERS OF LIFE INSURANCE INDUSTRY

The total market size of India's insurance sector is projected to touch US$ 350-400 billion
by 2020 from US$ 66.4 billion in FY13.Digital@Insurance-20X By 2020, a report by
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Google India, projects insurance sales from online
channels to increase 20 times from present day sales by 2020, and overall internet
influenced sales to reach Rs 300,000-400,000 crore (US$ 48.51-66.68 billion). Investment
corpus in India's pension sector is anticipated to cross US$ 1 trillion by 2025, following the
passage of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) Act 2013,
according to a joint report by CII-EY on Pensions Business in India.
Indian insurance companies are expected to spend Rs 117 billion (US$ 1.89 billion) on IT
products and services in 2014, an increase of five per cent from 2013, as per Gartner Inc.
Also, insurance companies in the country could spend Rs 4.1 billion (US$ 66.29 million) on
mobile devices in 2014, a rise of 35 per cent from 2013.4
Major Factors responsible for this growth are as follows:
Rural as a major thrust: More than 70% of population lives in rural area. Their
consumption pattern, choice and preference have changed. Technology and internet has
given ample scope for rural people towards adopting new ideas. These forces have provided
a larger platform to multinational players to focus more on rural.
In order to foster growth, Govt has also made mandatory to do certain percentage of
policies every year from rural area for the insurance companies. All these steps provide new
avenues for the players to think growth more in rural area.
Development of other insurance: There is strong growth in auto sector from 2003 to 2012.
The no of passenger and commercial vehicles has increased incrementally. As a result, the
motor insurance has become more popular among people.
Health insurance has created a separate portfolio in the last few years. People have realized
the importance of this due to rise in the healthcare cost. Introduction of Technology in

4
Media Reports, Press Releases, IRDA Journal

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medical science and demand for good service is the main cause for higher medical cost.
Awareness about the health due to various schemes and non-government intervention has
enlarged the vision of the people about health care. Rastriya Swathya Bima yojana (RSBY)
of 2007 is one of the mile stone in this area where people below poverty line are able to get
minimum health service.
Growing Economy: The economy of India is growing significantly. The second populous
country has witnessed a phenomenal growth in major financial services. Various
government schemes and programs also helped a lot. The purchasing power of people has
increased. Also increase in income has augmented the disposal income among people. Good
saving and awareness among various sources of getting the products have compelled the
people to go for specialization rather than generalization. It is estimated that by 2026, the
working population which ranges n the age group of 25 to 40 will reach approximately
795.5 million.
The growth if Indian life insurance sector is divided into two main periods. One from 2001
to 2010 and other from 2012 to onwards. The first 10 years was high growth with compound
annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 3.1% I new business premium. Most of the
players were in good condition due to the emergence of unit linked insurance plans. From
2010 onwards, the compound annual growth rate was around 2%. Stiff competition was one
of the reasons for the stagnant growth in the year of 2012. Table 1 shows the companies in
detail.
Table 1: List of Life Insurance Companies in India
Sl. No. Name of Life Insurance company Head Office
1 AEGON Religare Life Insurance Company Ltd. Mumbai
2 Aviva Life Insurance Co. India Ltd. Gurgaon
3 Bharti AXA Life Insurance Company Ltd. Mumbai
4 Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company Limited Pune
5 Birla Sun Life Insurance Co. Ltd. Mumbai
6 Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Gurgaon
Company Limited
7 DHFL Pramerica Life Insurance Company Limited. Gurgaon
8 Future Generali India Life Insurance Co. Ltd. Mumbai
9 HDFC Life Mumbai
10 ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd. Mumbai
11 IDBI Federal Life Insurance Co. Ltd. Mumbai
12 India First Life Insurance Company Limited. Mumbai
13 Exide Life Insurance Co. Ltd Bengaluru
14 Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Limited Mumbai
15 Life Insurance Corporation of India Mumbai
16 Max Life Insurance company Ltd. Gurgaon
17 PNB MetLife India Insurance Company Limited Bengaluru
18 Reliance Life Insurance Company Limited Mumbai
19 Sahara India Life Insurance Co, Ltd. Lucknow
20 SBI Life Insurance Co. Ltd. Mumbai
21 Shriram Life Insurance Co. Ltd. Hyderabad

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Continuous 39th Edition, Page No: 5391-5400

22 Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company Limited Mumbai

23 Tata AIA Life Insurance Company Ltd. Mumbai
24 Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance Co. Ltd. Mumbai
Source: IRDA website (www.irda.gov.in)
1.1 Changing Competitive Environment:
With the opening of insurance sector in India, the share of private insurer was very less. As
shown in table-1, total share of private insurer was just 2% in 2001-02. It was because of
any reason which includes credibility on private players. But soon because of innovative &
customized products, novel distribution channels, aggressive marketing etc.private players
gave a tough competition to public sector company (LIC). Gradually, the market share of
private insurer went up and till financial year 2007-08, total share of private insurer reached
as high as 40.35%.The market share of LIC decreases after the entry of private insurer but it
doesnt mean that the growth of LIC got down. LIC continue its growth even after a cut
throat completion from the private players.

Figure 1: Market share of Public and private Insurance Companies

Source: IRDA Annual Reports
1.2 Market Share of Top Insurers in India
The following table shows the market share of top insurers in India in the period till April
2011:
Table 2: Share of Top Insurers
Company Approximate market share
LIC 50%
ICICI 10%

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Continuous 39th Edition, Page No: 5391-5400

SBI 5%
Bajaj 4%
Reliance 5%
HDFC 6%
Birla 4%
Max New York 3%
Tata 2%
Met Life 1%
Kotak 2%
Others 8%
Source: IRDA Annual Reports
1.3 Product Innovations
Before entrance of private players, it was observed that only endowment and money back
policies were popular among consumers. But the new, private insurers focused on providing
customized products, products that contain innovative features to the customers created
favorable demands for other type of policies like tern insurance, child plan, pension plans
and unit linked insurance policies (ULIPs).
According to Mr J. Hari Narayan, Chairman of insurance watchdog IRDA, Indian insurance
industry in set for some serious changes. Mr Narayan said the Indian insurance industry had
matured from its state of childhood to early adulthood. He said that in countries like UK, the
agents have adopted themselves to latest form of marketing and very soon such changes will
also be introduced in India. With an annual growth rate of 15-20% and the largest number of
life insurance policies in force, the potential of the Indian insurance industry is huge. Total
value of the Indian insurance market (2004-05) is estimated at Rs. 450 billion (US$10
billion). According to government sources, the insurance and banking services contribution
to the country's gross domestic product (GDP) is 7% out of which the gross premium
collection forms a significant part. The funds available with the state-owned Life Insurance
Corporation (LIC) for investments are 8% of GDP.5
The following table shows the total number of policies floated by the private insurance
companies in the post liberalization period.
TABLE 3 : No. of Policies by Private Insurers
Year No. of Policies by Private Insurers Growth rate (%)
2001 10000 -
2002 132547 1225.47
2003 825094 522.49
2004 1658847 101.05

Sri a Sricha da ,I dia Life I sura ce I dustry-The Changing Trends, International Journal of Research &
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Development A management Review (IJRDMR), 3(1):62.

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Continuous 39th Edition, Page No: 5391-5400

2005 2233075 34.62

2006 3871410 73.37
2007 7922274 104.64
2008 13261558 67.40
2009 15011000 13.19
2010 14362000 -4.32
2011 11114000 -22.61
2012 8442000 -24.26
Source: IRDA Annual Reports
1.4 Premium Collected By Private Insurance Companies
The total amount of premium collected by the private insurance companies also has been
increasing in a faster rate like the increase in the number of policies. The premium collected
by private insurance companies is given below.
Table4: Amount of Premium Collected by Private Insurance Companies
Year Amt of Premium by Pvt Insurers (lakh Rs) Growth Rate
2001 712.07 -
2002 27254.81 3727.55
2003 111906.15 310.59
2004 312032.63 178.83
2005 772750.82 147.65
2006 1508353.79 95.19
2007 2825301 87.31
2008 5156142 82.50
2009 6449744 25.09
2010 7937306 23.06
2011 8816524 11.08
2012 8418283 -4.52
Source: IRDA Annual Reports
Table 6: Amount of Premium Collected By Various Insurance Companies
BSLI ICICI PRU MNYL HSLIC SBI LIFE BABAJ A.
2001 31.9 597 15.98 67.19
2002 2826 11637 3895 3346 1468 714
2003 14392 41762 9659 1488 7239 6917
2004 53754 98928 21525 29776 22567 22080
2005 91547 236382 41343 68663 60118 100168
2006 125566 426105 78818 156991 107532 313358
2007 176617 791299 150028 285587 292849 534524
2008 325713 1356106 271460 485856 562214 972531
2009 457180 1535622 385726 556469 721210 1062452
2010 550556 1653188 486054 700510 1010403 1141971
2011 567707 1788063 581263 900414 1294529 960995
2012 588536 1402158 639053 1020240 1313374 748380
Source: IRDA Annual Reports

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VI. FINDINGS
Difficulty in designing Marketing Mix:
Marketing mix refers the combination of all Ps to make the market attractive. Innovation
in product which invited many unit linked policies was the centre of attraction for all. Low
premium due to large no of players sometimes were uncomfortable for all. The entire
banking industry is advanced in the communication strategy. This has compelled insurance
players to practice innovative communication strategy including advertisement. So is not
only product, but a balanced marketing mix is required for the industry with modern trend.
Hybrid distribution channel:
In the life insurance industry, the prominent distribution was agency. Around 90 % of
businesses were coming from them. The high cost and low persistency in policy has thought
of going to other channels known as alternate channels. Recently the contribution from
alternate channels is increasing. In this context, Bancassuarnce increased and the no of
banks as insurance partner has gone up. Both Public sector banks and Private Banks have
come up with their insurance partners.
Broking and corporate agency has their own way of doing the business. Individual and
institution as corporate agents has helped agency to increase the revenue. At the same time,
we have also taken the help of rural development organization such as NGOs, Trust and
SHG members to cover the rural area. Finding the right distribution channel for the
customer is a trouble area. All these have demanded a high skill in management.
On line policy:
Internet and technology has helped a lot to insurer. Now policy procuring through on line is
cheaper than buying the same plan from agent. The major problem is not getting the support
from the agent for that policy, if there is a claim or maturity. The person has to keep direct
contact with the company.
Regulatory trend: The Indian regulator has introduced rules and regulation from to time to
control the entire industry. Recent changes in the cap on ULIP charges have created havoc
and the contribution of ULIP to entire policy has decreased. In order to provide better
service, the regulator has come with few changes. Servicing of orphan policy, more focus on
long term are few examples where the insurer are finding difficult. Standardization of the
proposal form is another step by regulator. So the insurers are facing many challenges in the
area of product, price, distribution and taxation.
Claim Management: From 2010, the no of advisors have decreased in the industry. The no
of agents declined 29% from March 2010 to March 2013. Also it is expected that more
agents will leave the industry. Under this situation, Claim management will be tougher for
the companies. As people buy insurance because of the face value of agents, assistance of
them is highly essential for good business
Customer Servicing: From the year 2013, it is very clear that traditional plans have gained
more weightage over ULIP. As traditional plans are long term products, insurer need to
focus more on this. Customer retention and servicing is the key to remain in business. Even
if in new pension plan, the capital protection features demands more policy servicing. Here

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investment and servicing are important for the companies. Above all, Policy administration
is the most difficulty area to provide customer servicing.

VII. RECOMMENDATION
From the above discussion on findings, we came across few novel ideas. Life insurance in
India is in growing stage and to maintain it, the following five points are to be considered
Corporate must go to the basics of service marketing such as under promise and over
delivery
Customization of offerings, mainly in product and distribution
Pockets of service is to be done for quicker service and other operation
Advanced knowledge in the insurance is to be imparted to the employees in Insurance
industry
Digitalization and Relationship is to be kept in policy marketing

VIII. CONCLUSION
Where almost all the industries in the world trying hard for survival due to the major
economic meltdown, Indian life insurance industry is one of the sectors that is still
observing good growth. It is the changing trends of Indian insurance industry only that has
made it to cope with the changing economic environment. Indian insurance industry has
modified itself with the passage of time by introducing customized products based on
customers need, through innovative distribution channels, Indian life insurance industry
searched its path to grow. Changing government policy and guideline of the regulatory
authority, IRDA have also played a very vital role in the growth of the sector. Move from
non-linked to unit liked insurance policies is one of the major positive changes in Indian life
insurance sector. Similarly, opening on the sector for private insurer broke the monopoly of
LIC and bring in a tough competition among the players. This completion resulted into
innovations in products, pricing, distribution channels, and marketing in the industry.
Though the sector is growing fast, the industry has not yet insured even 50% of insurable
population of India. Thus the sector has a great potential to grow. To achieve this objective,
this sector requires more improvement in the insurance density and insurance penetration.
Development of products including special group policies to cater to different categories
should be a priority, especially in rural areas. The life insurers should conduct more
extensive market research before introducing insurance products targeted at specific
segments of the population so that insurance can become more meaningful and affordable.
By adopting appropriate strategy along with proper government support and able guidance
of IRDA, India will certainly become the new insurance giant in near future.

IX. REFERENCES
[1] Gupta, P.(2011), Insurance and risk Management, Second edition, Himalaya Publishing
House
[2] IC 33 (2007), Life Insurance,(New Syllabus),Insurance Institute of India, Mumbai, India.

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[3] KPMG (2013),Insurance Industry Road Ahead, Path for sustainable growth momentum
and increasing profitability, Available from : www.kpmg,com./in, [15 May 2014]
[4] BCG (2013), India Life Insurance: Negotiating the troublesome teens, Available from:
www.bcg.com. [16 May 2014]
[5] Jain, A.(2011), Global Trends in Life Insurance: Policy Administration,
[6] Annual report(2012), Insurance Regulatory and development authority(IRDA), Govt of
India, Available from: www.irda.gov.in, [16 May 2014]
[7] Zeithaml, V. & Bitner, M. (2003), Services Marketing, Third Edition, Tata Mc Graw-Hill
Publishing
[8] Annual report of IRDA, 2003-04, 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08.
[9] Annual report of LIC, 2003-04, 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08.
[10] Article, An Analysis of the Evolution of Insurance in India by Tapen Sinha, ING Chair
Professor Institute Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico and Special Professor, University of
Nottingham.

To Cite This Paper

[1]
Chawla, M. (2016): On Life Insurance Industry As Per Indian Perspective
International Journal of Informative & Futuristic Research (ISSN: 2347-1697),
Vol. 4 No. (3), November 2016, pp. 5391-5400, Paper ID: IJIFR/V4/E3/004.

Meenu Chawla :: On Life Insurance Industry As Per Indian

Perspective 5400