Mr. T. S. Vijayan, the Chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), has stated that a revised Initial Public Offering (IPO) guidelines will soon be issued for insurers. This will be done keeping in mind the interests of insurers, as most of them are willing to use this route to raise funds.
With an increase in the limit of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), the investment in the insurance sector was ₹15,000 crores. The passing of the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill in March 2015 led to this investment, mostly in the form of equity.
The foreign investment cap in the sector was increased from 26% to 49% by the bill. Mr. Vijayan said that life insurance grew by 12% and non-life insurance by 14% as per the last insurance business sector fiscal. The health insurance sector grew by 40%. He said, “Business has been good for all insurance companies in April. If this trend continues, we can expect higher growth in financial year 2016-17 also in life, non-life and health.” He added that the penetration of health insurance in India is very low and there is potential for higher growth.