History of Insurance in India

Let us have a close view about the first insurance company in India:

In India, insurance began in 1818 with life insurance beign transacted by an English company, the Oriental Life Insurance Co.Ltd..The first Indian Insurance company was the Bombay Mutual Assurance Society Ltd, formed in 1870 Mumbai.This was followed by the Bharat Insurance Co.in 1896 in Delhi, the Empire of India in 1897 in Mumbai, the United India in Chennai, the National, the National Indian and the Hindustan Cooperative in Kolkata.

Later were established the Cooperative Assembly in Lahore, the Bombay Life (originally called the Swadeshi Life), the Indian Mercantile , the New India and the Jupiter in Mumbai and the Lakshmi in New Delhi. These were all Indian companies started as a result of the swadeshi movement in the early 1900's. By the year 1956, when the Life Insurance business was nationalised and the Life Insurance Cooporation of India(LIC) was formed on 1st September 1956, there were 170 companies and 75 provident fund societies transacting life insurance business in India. After the ammendments to the relevant laws in 1999, the L.I.C did not have the exclusive privilege of doing life insurance business in India. By 31.8.2007, sixteen new life insurers had been registered and were transacting life insurance business in India.

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