RURAL INSURANCE

The Indian rural market offers tremendous growth opportunities for insurance companies. According to a survey 'India Invest Incomes and Savings Survey 2007' by IIMS Dataworks (a Noida-based retail finance research firm), 58 per cent of India's 105.4 million insured people were from the rural areas. Yet, urban India was ahead in terms of penetration (47 per cent), or the number of policyholders compared with the total population. This meant that almost one out of every two paid workers in urban India was insured, while it was only 27 per cent in rural areas.

With increased IRDA focus on the sector, growth rate in the rural sector has been picking up. Reliance Life Insurance recorded a growth of 150 per cent in rural policies against 140 per cent growth in urban policies, in 2007–08.