General insurance sector has hit a “tipping point” and will continue to grow year-on-year irrespective of ups and downs in economic growth, according to G Srinivasan, CMD, The New India Assurance Co Ltd.

Non life insurance, which is at about 1 per cent of GDP as compared with life insurance share of 1.8 per cent, will be a significant driver of growth and out do life insurance in about a decade, he told media persons during an interaction today ahead of the company’s IPO on Wednesday.

In recent years, the sector had grown at about 15-17 per cent and last year it had spiked to 32 per cent due to the Centre’s new crop insurance scheme. In the current year, it is growing at about 20 per cent and will sustain at this level, he said.

Health and motor insurance are among the drivers of growth now and in the coming years increasingly SME, personal accidents and shopkeepers insurance products will also contribute to the growth. House owners’ insurance holds a huge potential for growth and is among the lowest penetrated areas, Srinivasan said.

On crop insurance, the New India Assurance has disbursed about ₹750 crore out of a total claim of ₹850 crore it faced following droughts in Tamil Nadu. The rest will be disbursed in a couple of weeks, he said.

With a net worth of over ₹38,000 crore, the company has the capacity to sustain growth. Apart from the domestic markets, it is looking at expansions overseas with specific plans targeting Myanmar, which would be a re-entry into a traditional market where it was present a few decades back, Dubai and Qatar.

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