As per the annual report of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), LIC saw a decline in the number of new policies issued. While the private sector achieved a growth of 8.47 per cent in the number of new policies issued against the previous year, LIC achieved a growth of 5.99 per cent. During 2017-18, life insurers in India issued 281.97 lakh new individual policies, out of which LIC issued 213.38 lakh policies or 75.7 per cent of the total new policies issued and the private life insurers issued 68.59 lakh policies (24.3 per cent).
Also, Life Insurance Corporation’s (LIC) market share fell below 70 per cent in the financial year ended March 2018, while the market share of private insurers increased to 30.64 per cent in 2017-18, from 28.19 per cent in 2016-17. In the case of renewal premium, LIC had a share at 69.35 per cent (down from 72.31 per cent in the previous year). This compares with 30.65 per cent (27.69 per cent in the previous year) share of private insurers.
At the end of last financial year, there are 68 insurers operating in India, of which 24 are life insurers, 27 are general insurers, 6 are standalone health insurers exclusively doing health insurance business and 11 are re-insurers.