LACK OF EXPERIENCED MANAGEMENT HINDERS INDIA'S INSURANCE EXPANSION

Access to capital and the ability to attract experienced management is acting as a brake on India’s plans to drive the insurance market. Dr Kailash Chandra Mishra, director at the Indian Insurance Academy, told a conference in Singapore that the Indian market was set to further revamp its regulatory system with a new “all encompassing insurance act” that will be passed in the coming months. The act will role almost 100 years of insurance legislation into a single law, which will take into account the move to open the doors of the Indian market to international insurers. He said the benefit of the international expertise was already evident in the success of the joint ventures. “We are seeing growth in the market and in a country which is now enjoying a demographic dividend,” said Mishra. “We are moving to a population where we have many people of a working age and with very few children or elderly.”