Ashwani Nexus

  💠 India’s Life Insurance Penetration Is Falling — And It’s Time to Say It Clearly 💠 Let’s call this out honestly: India’s life insurance penetration is declining, even as we proudly talk about rising premiums, more agents, and wider distribution. Looking at 15 year period, for individual sales . the number of  individual policies sold has fallen from 5.31 Crores in 2009-10 to 2.91 Cr in 2023-24, the insurance penetration at 4.6% of GDP in 2009-10 fell to a low of 2.8% of GDP in 2023-24.(Data upto 2023-24 available in IRDAI). Both numbers have varied during this period,risng and falling.As I have said in my previous posts Group insurance has its own set of issues, which I would not comment in this post. 👉 This is not success. ▪️ This is a signal that something deeper is broken. ▪️ Despite all the growth, we are adding premium, not people. A small, already-insured segment is driving the numbers, while millions of households still stay outside the safety net. Fina...

  The industry loves debating what matters most — higher VNB margins, lower operating costs, or some new metric. But we often miss the obvious: metrics don’t buy insurance. People do. Any discussion that doesn’t start and end with the customer is already misplaced. 👉 Yes, VNB margins are important. They signal long-term value and business strength. But when margins rise because products get complicated, premiums get inflated, or sales are driven by balance-sheet logic instead of customer needs, we drift away from the core purpose of insurance. 👉 Cost efficiency is equally important. Lower costs can mean better pricing and better value. But cost-cutting without sensitivity can damage service quality, slow down claims, and weaken trust. 👉 So what truly matters? The Metric Above All Metrics: Customer Relevance A sustainable insurer isn’t the one with the highest VNB or the lowest cost. It’s the one that offers products people actually need, at prices they can actually afford, sup...

  “Insurance for All by 2047” is a powerful national vision — but achieving it requires more than just growth in premiums. It calls for a shift in mindset — from premium-driven strategies to protection-driven inclusion . Table 1: Group Life Insurance data for FY 2024-25 (as on 31 March 2025) gives an interesting perspective. It shows that Group Single Premium products account for over 93% of total premiums of Group Insurance — despite being high-cost instruments or mainly what we call funded schemes with some risk coverage. These are primarily designed for formal sector superannuation and benefit management, not for broad-based protection. Similarly, Non-Single Premium plans, though smaller in share, add to the cost of risk coverage. In contrast, the Group Yearly Renewable Term Insurance (YRT) — the most affordable and flexible form of protection — contributes less than 5% of total premium income. Yet, it’s this segment that holds the real potential to expand coverag...

  🌿 The Leadership Lesson I Understood Years Later I had just taken charge as a Branch In-Charge — new, eager, a little anxious. One afternoon, an elderly gentleman walked in. He introduced himself as a long-retired employee, sat for a while, and as he got up to leave, offered me a simple line of advice: “To be successful, always stay in touch with your old colleagues — especially those who’ve left the organisation.” I smiled politely, not quite understanding what he meant. He added, “They see the organisation both as insiders and outsiders. With no stakes, no agendas — their insights will help you see clearly.” At that time, it sounded abstract. But as years passed and responsibilities grew, his words began to ring true. Inside any organisation, conversations often tilt towards the positive — not out of intent, but comfort. But those who’ve stepped out view things with a rare objectivity. They notice shifts in customer behaviour, market sentiment, and internal ...

  Some of the biggest shifts in finance don’t happen on trading floors — they happen in small towns, in everyday lives. Some milestone events are measured by numbers. 👉 But sometimes, their real impact goes far beyond the statistics. I realised this much later, after LIC’s public offering. While settling into a new neighbourhood, a grocery shop owner noticed the LIC sticker on my car and said with a grin, “Thanks to LIC, I’ve made good money.” He was an LIC policyholder. During the offering, his agent had helped him open his first demat account so he could apply for shares. Excited by the experience, he then helped nearly forty friends and relatives do the same — many from his native village in interior Maharashtra, where few had ever owned a demat account. What began as a single investment turned into something much larger — a quiet movement towards financial inclusion. 👉 This story would have been repeated across India.It  would have sparked awareness, confidence, and ow...