New India Assurance will focus on the largely untapped retail, SME and personal line segments, its Chairman and Managing Director G Srinivasan said. Speaking on the sidelines of an event in Coimbatore, he told BusinessLine that there were over 48 million small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country and most operate on cash.

“Those that operate on bank finance will have a policy, but it would be only to the extent of finance (borrowing).

“Two things are happening here,” he said, adding “the government itself is thinking of coming out with a product for SMEs. They are discussing with the industry to come out with a product that is competitively priced and for various covers.”

“At our level too, we are using our agents and micro agents to sell (basically) property insurance, health insurance and some policies like money insurance, fidelity, etc. We are talking to industrial estates, industry associations... The process is on,” Srinivasan said, and emphasised the need for greater awareness.

His reference to awareness was in the context of under-cover (inadequate cover). “When losses occur, we find that the sum insured is not adequate; so they do not get the full compensation,” he explained.

To a query on long-term health insurance product, he said: “We have ideas, but not focussed at this point in time. We are focussed on products for the larger segment (middle class) at present. Maybe six months down the line, we will look at long-term health products”.

The company has fixed the premium income target for the current fiscal at ₹21,000 crore, up from the ₹18,431-crore premium mopped up during the previous year.

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