Life insurance cos to pump Rs 450 crore on awareness campaign to deepen penetration

Time of India

2 days ago

Battling a fall in penetration, life insurance companies on Wednesday committed to spending at least Rs 450 crore on a three-year multimedia awareness campaign.
The Insurance Awareness Committee launched the campaign with the theme 'Sabse Pehle Life Insurance', which will have contributions from all life insurance players on the basis of their premium incomes.
"We will spend at least Rs 150-160 crore per year, and we have commitments lined up to run the campaign at least for three years," Kamlesh Rao, chairman of the council, told reporters here.
It can be noted that the penetration of insurance has dipped for the last few years, and the overall premium collected by companies stands at 3.2 per cent of GDP in FY25 against 4 per cent in FY23 and 3.7 per cent in FY24.
India is still the 10th largest market in the world from a penetration perspective, but regulator Irdai's member (life) Swaminathan Iyer said that we have a long way to go.
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Speaking at the event, he said only about 36 crore of the 140 crore people have a cover at present, and added that migration to and out of big cities exposes people to financial vulnerabilities, which make insurance necessary.
A survey done by the council also revealed that while people are aware and have taken cover, it may be inadequate for them.
The campaign focuses on term, child and
savings plans
initially and also includes other aspects.
Meanwhile, replying to a question on whether the watchdog is mulling allowing insurers to invest in gold exchange-traded funds, Iyer said that Irdai looks at all requests that are made, and the interests of policyholders and the growth of the industry are of importance to it.