Insurance sector in India has seen a number of phases of development right from its establishment in the year 1818. This sector gained better improvement in the past decade with the permission granted to private companies to enter the insurance sector. With the Government of India offering permission for foreign direct investment up to 26% in this sector, the sector has begun to boom further.

The products of insurance sector range across different varieties of portfolio like:

• Home insurance

• Medical insurance

• Health insurance

• Vehicle insurance

• Life insurance

The insurance sector in India further came up with the contribution of the top companies in India in this sector and the list of the top ten companies in this sector is given below:

Top 10 insurance companies in India:

• Life Insurance Corporation of India

• Bajaj Allianz General Insurance

• ICICI Prudential Life Insurance

• SBI Life Insurance

• Birla Sun Life Insurance

• TATA AIG General Insurance

• Max New York Life

• Reliance Life

• Oriental Insurance Company

• HDFC Standard Life Insurance

Some of the details regarding these top players in the insurance sector in India are given below:

Life Insurance Corporation of India:

One of the oldest companies in the insurance sector in India is the LIC of India and this company was incorporated in the year 1956 by the alliance of 75 provident companies, 154 Indian Insurance companies and 16 non-Indian Companies. In addition to its corporate office, the company has 7 zonal officers, 2048 computerized branches and 100 divisional offices. They offer a wide range of insurance policies and the policies offered by them are classified under the following main categories:

• Joint life plan

• Team assurance plans

• Whole life plans

• Special money back plan for women

• Money back plans

• Endowment assurance plans

• Plans for handicapped dependents

• Children plans

• Bima account plans

• Endowment plans

Bajaj Allianz General Insurance:

Bajaj Allianz General Insurance company is a joint venture between Bajaj Auto and Alliance AG. The former company is a big player in the automobile sector in India, while the later is a player in the insurance sector. This joint venture company offers the following services:

• Renewal premium payments

• Online services

• Life insurance saving plans

• Online life insurance

• Health care

• Life time care

• Retirement and pension plans

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance:

As the name implies ICICI Prudential offers a wide range of life insurance policies and their policies include retirement plants, ULIP, life insurance and health insurance. Their life insurance plans include education insurance plans, premium guarantee plans, etc, while their health insurance plans include MediAssure, Hospital care, etc…

SBI Life Insurance:

SBI Life Insurance is another joint venture company in the top players in insurance sector in India and this company is formed with the joint venture between BNP Paribas Assurance and State Bank of India. Out of the total capital, BNP’s share is 26%, while that of SBI is 74%. The paid up capital of the company is Rs. 1000 crores, while the authorized capital is Rs. 2000 crores. This company offers a wide range of health plans, group plans and individual plans.

Birla Sun Life Insurance:

This company is a joint venture between Aditya Birla group and Sun life financials and it offers a wide range of services to meet the life insurance needs of the people. Their insurance policies are classified into four broad categories namely:

• NRI Solutions

• Rural Solutions

• Group Solutions

• Individual Solutions

The protection solutions offered by them are classified under retirement solutions, health & wellness solutions, wealth with protection solutions and Children’s future solutions.

TATA AIG General Insurance:

TATA AIG general insurance is a joint venture between the popular TATA group in India and America International Group. They offer a wide range of products with respect to life insurance to businesses, individuals and associations. Some of the services offered by them are:

• Tata AIG Life Assure 10 years

• Tata AIG Life Maha Gold

• Tata AIG Life Hospi Cash back

• AIG Health life protector

Max New York Life:

Max New York Life offers the best life insurance products like investment protection, retirement solution, children’s plan, etc… They are offering more than 35 products pertaining to health and life insurance. They have direct sales centers at 14 locations, 33 bank assurance relationships and 14 corporate agency tieups. Their products are classified into the following main categories:

• Retirement plans

• Health plans

• Child plans

• Growth plans

• Life plans

Reliance Life:

Reliance Life is an associate company of Reliance Capital Limited and their products are mainly divided into two main categories namely solutions for individuals and solutions for groups. Two sub category of plans comes under each of these two plans and they are protection plans & child plans under solutions for individual and investment plans & retirement plans under solutions for groups.

Oriental Insurance Company:

Oriental Insurance Company Limited came into existence in the year 1947 with its corporate officer at Bombay and the company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Oriental Government Security Life Assurance Company. From the year 1956 to 1973, the company was working as a subsidiary of Life Insurance Corporation of India. Before the year 2003, a large part of the shares of this company was held by the General Insurance Corporation of India after which the shares were transferred to the Central Government.

HDFC Standard Life Insurance:

HDFC Standard Life insurance offer a wide range of insurance plans under investment plans, savings, retirement plans, protection plans, health plans and group plans. This company has a customer base of more than 7 million people, who are satisfied with their different needs pertaining to banking, investment and pension. They have more than 500 branches serving the needs of customers located in over 700 cities.

Nowadays, people have understood the importance of insurance policies and with this, insurance companies introduce a wide range of products to meet the needs of different types of their customers and they strive to offer the best possible service.