| According to Sikdar rural areas of Punjab have immense potential for insurance providers. Private sector insurance players are now making a beeline to tap the potential in semi-urban and rural pockets of Punjab. |
| The new entrant is ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, one of the largest private life insurance providers in the country. |
| With the help of rural teams, specifically designed to measure the rural market, the company expects to increase its market share manifold. |
| Sikdar said the company had 15 centres in Punjab and would double its network in three months in the state. |
| According to him, given the constraint of lack of education among the rural population, the policies have been designed in a simpler way. |
| He said the rural marketing teams of the company were in the process of tying up with local NGOs to expand reach. He gave the example of Madhya Pradesh, where the company, in collaboration with ITC's e-chaupals, was able to penetrate into rural areas. |
| "We have been able to secure a 30 per cent market share among the private players and a 9.4 per cent share of the life insurance market, in the past five years," said Sikdar. |
| "This could happen because we created new customer segments," he added. |
| The company registered a growth rate of 30 per cent in the country and about 80 per cent in Punjab. |
| He said Punjab was a front-runner after the metros in offering opportunities for the insurance business. |
| The company has a fund management of Rs 8,882 crore, new business achieved profits of Rs 550 crore and renewal premium of Rs 1,657 crore. |
| The company settled 1,369 urban death claims of about Rs 14 crore. The average time to settle a claim was about six days. |
| ICICI Prudential sold more than 2 million policies and 500,000 rural policies in 2005-06, becoming the first private player to do so, said Sikdar. |
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