insurance sector to grow 17% in 2008/09 fiscal year: IRDA

Wednesday 03, December, 2008 NEW DELHI: India's insurance sector is expected to grow 17 per cent in 2008/09 fiscal year if the economy expands at 7.6 per cent, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) chairman J. Hari Narayan said on Wednesday. He also told a insurance conference that there was no fear of job losses in the sector due to the global economic slowdown. The regulator is also expected to finalise fresh rules on mergers and acquisitions by March 2009, he added. In October, the federal cabinet approved changes to insurance laws and proposed raising the foreign investment limit to 49 percent from the present 26 percent. India has 21 life and 20 general insurers. Some joint ventures include Tata AIG, Bajaj Allianz, ICICI Prudential, SBI Life, HDFC Standard Life, Birla Sunlife, Max New York Life and Bharti AXA Life. Life insurers grew their business by 23.3 percent to 930 billion rupees in 2007/08 fiscal year, while general insurers posted growth of about 14 percent in premium income to 298 billion rupees, according to IRDA data.

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