Highlights:

India boasts of the largest number of life insurance policies in the world – that makes it a great career choice. India is the fifth largest life insurance market in the emerging insurance economies globally and is growing at 32-34 per cent annually. With increasing competitiveness amongst these, the players are bringing out newer products to attract more customers into their kitty. Foreign direct investment (FDI) up to 26 per cent is permitted under the automatic route subject to obtain a license from the official regulator, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA). The total number of life insurance companies operating in India is currently 22.

Two major factors impacting the general insurance segment are the detariffing of interest rates by Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA), which gave autonomy to insurers in pricing insurance policies and has created a competitive field in general insurance business, the second being the financial meltdown, which has also made the corporate sector shift partially towards the public sector insurers, perceived to be having higher financial strength, according to major industry players.

Yet, according to indiacore.com, nearly 80 per cent of Indian population is without life insurance cover while health insurance and non-life insurance continues to be below international standards. And this part of the population is also subject to weak social security and pension systems with hardly any old age income security. This itself is an indicator that growth potential for the insurance sector is immense. "A well-developed and evolved insurance sector is needed for economic development as it provides long-term funds for infrastructure development and at the same time strengthens the risk taking ability. It is estimated that over the next ten years India would require investments of the order of one trillion US dollars. The insurance sector, to some extent, can enable investments in infrastructure development to sustain economic growth of the country," says the site.

According to the Investment Commission of India, the Indian insurance market is expected to be around US$ 52 billion by 2010. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is expected to be over 30 per cent per annum.

Insurance in India has a history dating back to 1818. Life and general insurance in India is still a nascent sector with huge potential for various global players with the life insurance premiums accounting to 2.5% of the country's GDP while general insurance premiums to 0.65% of India's GDP. The Insurance sector in India has gone through a number of phases and changes, particularly in the recent years when the govt. of India in 1999 opened up the insurance sector by allowing private companies to solicit insurance and also allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) up to 26%. Ever since, the Indian insurance sector is considered as a booming market with every other global insurance company wanting to have a lion's share. Currently, the largest life insurance company in India, Life Insurance Corporation of India, is still owned by the government.
There are primarily two kinds of insurance doing business in India: life insurance and general insurance. The life insurance