DOI: 10.36347/sjebm.2014.v01i09.001

Pages: 392-399

Insurance industry is one of the fast developing business in the service sector. Sufficient coverage of insurance, especially in general insurance is lacking as revealed by insurance penetration and insurance density. Hence the study is an attempt to assess the growth of general insurance sector. This is made by assessing few indicators to financial soundness which are of number of policies, amount of premium collected and amount of claim paid. The paper is prepared on the basis of the secondary data obtained from the IRDA annual report of the general insurance companies for the period of 2003-04 to 2012-13. The study used percentage analysis, mean, standard deviation, co-efficient of variation and CAGR as statistical tools. The study evidenced that the business growth in terms of number of policies and premium had been impressive. But growth in claims had been higher indicating adverse impact on profits the potentiality is largely left unexploited. This has two set of adverse implications. First is, this important financial service not being widely accepted by the public means, any losses suffered will have to be bourne by themselves which in many cases is likely to sound a death knell to the individual or business which suffers the loss. The IRDA would do good by taking up this development role, in propagating insurance service forcefully. The second is the huge employment potential, which in its turn would carry all the benefits to the individuals and the economy. The existing infrastructure would be put to better and effective use, to generate higher levels of profit, all of which would go a long way in growth in GDP, benefiting the entire nation.