From inclusive banking to inclusive insurance

As insurance penetration deepens, India will have a decent pool of long-term funds to support infrastructure building and the government's borrowing programme, easing the burden on the banking system

You gift me a car. There’s a wide road on which I can drive. But I have not been allowed to fill more than 20 litres of oil in the tank. There’s no stepney in the boot (in case a tyre bursts); no hydraulic jack to easily lift the car for changing a flat tyre. I don’t even have a good driver. So the car hardly leaves the garage even though the wide road beacons it.

This has been the case of India’s insurance industry even after two decades of privatisation. It’s still a sunrise industry.

Debasish Panda, chairman of