General Insurance companies posted a positive growth of 87.9% (year-on-year) in gross direct premium in September. Data from the General Insurance Council show that private players witnessed higher premium underwritten compared with public sector insurance companies. Industry officials also said specialised insurers such as ECGC and AIC reported huge growth likely due to crop insurance. In September, the general insurance industry saw gross premium income at Rs 15,087.01 crore against R8,029.59 crore in September last year. While private insurers registered gross premium income at R5,459.98 crore up 66.9% compared with the previous year, public sector insurance companies saw growth of 51.7% at R5,626.68 crore. The general insurance sector saw a sustained growth during the last few months and higher participation from private players as against public sector insurers. “Overall, there has been demand, but this strong growth in September is largely due to the crop insurance scheme. Private insurers are already leading with high market share in motor insurance segment, while several public sector insurers have high share in fire and marine insurance segments,” said a major insurance player. Industry officials believe that the crop insurance segment could bring in premiums in the range of R15,000-18,000 crore this fiscal. Standalone health insurance companies saw a 48.2% surge in their premium income in September. Two specialised players – ECGC and AIC – witnessed 380.2% growth in September. “Non-life industry couldn’t touch R1-lakh-crore mark in last financial year, but this year within first six months we have reached R60,000 crore mark. It seems this year could be positive for general insurers,” said a senior official from a leading public sector insurance company. Data from the GIC show that gross direct premium underwritten by the industry stood at Rs 60,407.87 crore up to September, compared with R46,966.19 crore in the year-ago period, a growth of 28.6%. Source - http://www.financialexpress.com