Unique Position Of: Being A Market Leader

Do you think the new government’s push for economic reforms will work wonders for the economy that has been floundering for the last couple of years due to various problems?

We see a positive sentiment in the market and an upbeat mood among investors. To create a turnaround is not an easy task; however, we can see that the government is taking the right steps. We hope that the FIIs, FPIs and the Indian corporate sector will soon respond by infusing funds to create new ventures, infrastructure and industries. The right kind of climate is being created.

How has the company evolved over the past few years?

The New India Assurance has the unique position of being a market leader both in the private and nationalised eras. We continue to hold our pole position in the liberalised market. Wholly owned by the government, we lead not only in terms of premiums but also in almost all the other parameters such as reserves, net worth, branch network, credit rating, etc. Despite intense competition from about 28 players that includes major global entities, our market share has been steadily going up month after month in this year. Many large corporates continue to place their trust in us despite some of them owning their own insurance companies. This is driven by our skill in managing complex situations and our risk capacities. There are very few incidents where a PSU has held its fort against private sector competition and kept growing.

Can you elaborate on the growth areas that the company is focusing on from a medium and long term perspective?

While we have a presence in all the segments such as corporate, retail, broking, bancassurace, motor vehicle OEMs, and others, we will focus on personal and retail insurance lines as we believe that these are emerging growth areas in the medium and long term. We will also develop and increase our footprint in B2B and G2C business opportunities through digital platforms. We are already present in common service centers and we have some unique business structures with the Institute of Chartered Accounts of India and BPCL, among others.

With human resource being a key factor for growth, what initiatives has the company taken to improve profitability of the company per employee?

Our major asset is the almost 20,000 strong workforce. Most of them are professionally well-qualified, experienced in domestic and foreign business, and technically sound. We have been constantly recruiting at both the staff and the officer levels. These candidates are well-groomed into the business and we continuously train them on acquiring technical, digital and soft skills. We have been expanding in the field of micro insurance and many new recruits are now heading these offices. One of the parameters that we weave into our internal KPAs is profitability per employee.