INDIA'S REL LIFE EYES US$208 MLN PREMIUM FROM MICRO INSURANCE

Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Life Insurance is aiming to receive premiums of around Rs 10 billion (US$208 million) in the next five years from the micro insurance space and is planning to introduce new products to cater to the savings needs of this segment.

Reliance Life Insurance Company (RLIC) is likely to get Rs 1 billion premium from micro insurance segment this year itself and plans to scale this to up to Rs 10 billion in the next five years.

Elaborating on the new products the company is planning to introduce, Reliance Capital CEO Sam Ghosh said, "RLIC will be tapping this market with Group savings insurance policies and group term life."

Ghosh further said "this segment has unique servicing requirements and we will be using technology to drive down transaction costs, while partnering with groups such as Micro Finance Institutions, Non Governmental Organisation, banks and other financial groups to access these segments".

RLIC would be launching this initiative across ten states initially and would focus on product reach and relevance as against conventional focus on premium alone by most players.

As per UNDP, Micro Insurance, which refers to provisioning of financial services to low-income groups, is a US$2 billion opportunity in India. The current reach of micro insurance is 5 million people, or only 2 per cent of the poor.