Life Insurance is the fastest growing sector in India since 2000 as Government allowed Private players and FDI up to 26% and recently Cabinet approved a proposal to increase it to 49%. Life Insurance in India was nationalised by incorporating Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) in 1956. All private life insurance companies at that time were taken over by LIC.
In 1993, the Government of India appointed RN Malhotra Committee to lay down a road map for privatisation of the life insurance sector.
While the committee submitted its report in 1994, it took another six years before the enabling legislation was passed in the year 2000, legislation amending the Insurance Act of 1938 and legislating the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act of 2000. The same year the newly appointed insurance regulator - Insurance Regulatory and Development AuthorityIRDA—started issuing licenses to private life insurers.
