John Nelson, chairman of Lloyd’s, the world’s largest specialist insurance market, talks about the company’s plans for India. Edited excerpts from an interview:
How do you see the insurance market positioned in India at present?
We are purely into general insurance. India is one of the fastest growing major economies in the world. The prospect of growth of insurance and reinsurance is certainly very good in India, which is not necessarily there in most other parts of the world. Since the economy here is growing, the businesses are growing and so the amount of risks (taken by these businesses) is growing fast. The nature of risk is changing as the business models change. So things like supply chain risks, disruption risks and so on are increasing. Also, insurance penetration in India is at 0.7% as compared to 1.4% in the emerging economy of Asia-Pacific and 6.1% in developed countries. India is exposed to increasing catastrophe risks, commercial risks and concentration risks at organizations and that is widely recognized by the government. It is wise to mitigate those risks and making the economy more stable and sustainable.
