Monthly premium data for September 2026, reported on 8 October, show life insurers growing their new business by about 21% and standalone health insurers growing faster than the rest of the non-life industry.
Life insurance: new business up 21.32%
According to Life Insurance Council data reported by Business Standard, the life insurance industry's new business premium (NBP) rose 21.32% year-on-year to ₹48,780.55 crore in September. NBP is the premium collected from new policies in the month, including single-premium and group business; it does not include renewal premiums on existing policies.
Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) collected ₹27,528.7 crore, up 19.9%. Private life insurers together collected ₹21,251.84 crore, up 23.2%. Mint, citing a Motilal Oswal report, published matching figures.
Among private insurers, Business Standard reported ICICI Prudential Life up 53.3% to ₹2,700.8 crore, HDFC Life up 36% to ₹4,000.7 crore and SBI Life up 2% to ₹4,035.17 crore.
A different measure tells a more modest story. Individual weighted received premium (WRP), which gives single-premium policies only a tenth of their weight and is often used to track retail sales, grew about 9% for the industry in September, according to Mint.
Non-life: overall 6%, health-focused insurers faster
The gross direct premium of non-life insurers rose 6% to ₹32,951.16 crore in September. Within this:
- General (multi-line) insurers grew 12.4%.
- Standalone health insurers, which sell only health, personal accident and travel cover, grew 27.1%.
- Specialised insurers fell 49.9%, mainly because Agriculture Insurance Company of India's premium dropped 51.6%.
The overall figure was held back by the fall in crop insurance premiums rather than by health or motor business.
Among health-focused companies, Care Health's premium grew 44% to ₹1,041.64 crore, Niva Bupa's grew 33.1% and Star Health's grew 19.6% to ₹1,762.81 crore. Among multi-line insurers, SBI General grew 37% to ₹1,673.25 crore, HDFC ERGO 24.9% to ₹2,081.5 crore, Tata AIG 15.7% to ₹2,117.03 crore, ICICI Lombard 13.7% to ₹2,196.31 crore, Bajaj General 6.5% to ₹2,363.39 crore and New India Assurance 1.6% to ₹3,304.53 crore.
For April to September 2026 (the first half of FY27), standalone health insurers' premium rose 30.69% to ₹25,586.29 crore, while total non-life premium grew 8.92% to ₹1.80 trillion.
The GST factor
Part of the recent growth is linked to the GST change on individual health and life policies. Neha Parikh of rating agency ICRA said improved affordability after the GST change supported retail health and life growth over the past year. She expects reported growth rates to slow from October 2026, because premiums from this month will be compared with a higher base from a year earlier, after the change took effect, though she said underlying demand remains healthy.
Premium growth figures describe sales volumes. They do not, on their own, show how well an insurer settles claims or serves customers.