Birla Sun Life plans to enter micro-insurance

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Hyderabad, Oct 26: Birla Sun Life Insurance (BSLI), claimed to be one of the largest private life insurers, proposes to enter micro-insurance in a big way leveraging its strong rural distribution infrastructure. While the strategies are still being worked out, it is learnt that over a period of time, the company proposes to cover both general and crop insurance to the needy farmers across the country.

Speaking to FE, Anjana Grewal, vice-president, marketing and communication said: ‘‘We feel that there is a good potential and opportunity to benefit the rural folks by offering micro-insurance policies. Though it will not be a main business, it will constitute the developmental projects working on its already created platform which has built-in rural infrastructure.’’

The company has built its rural infrastructure with a cost-effective distribution network across the country. In the last fiscal, the company sold close to 48,128 policies in the rural areas, which constituted about 24% of the total individual policies sold by the company. ‘‘For this fiscal, the target for the total policies to be sold is close to 65,000 with NGOs contributing nearly 80% and the rest by the Aditya Birla Group units. To increase its reach, BSLI has entered into tieups with 25 NGOs across the country,’’ Ms Grewal said.

Recently, the company had increased its paid-up capital to Rs 400 crore through an additional infusion of Rs 30 crore. The JV partners - the Aditya Birla group and Sun Life Financial Inc - have contributed to increase the capital.