Both the life and non-life insurance segment posted over 20 per cent premium growth in November for the first time in this financial year (FY26), supported by the reduction in goods and services tax (GST) on premiums from 18 per cent to zero and a favourable base effect.
Life insurers reported nearly 23 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth in new business premiums (NBP) to Rs 31,119.6 crore in November, while non-life insurers recorded 24.17 per cent Y-o-Y growth to Rs 26,897.4 crore during the same period.
According to data from the Life Insurance Council, state-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) recorded 35 per cent
Y-o-Y growth in NBP to Rs 15,869.71 crore in November, while private life insurers posted 12.5 per cent Y-o-Y growth to Rs 15,249.93 crore.
During this period, individual premiums grew 26.4 per cent Y-o-Y to Rs 14,939 crore, and group business premiums rose over 49 per cent Y-o-Y to Rs 16,180.25 crore.
Earlier, life insurers had recorded 22.4 per cent Y-o-Y growth in July 2025.
The number of policies sold in November increased 48.44 per cent Y-o-Y to 2.2 million.
This helped narrow the contraction in policy sales for April-November FY26 to 2.74 per cent, compared with a 7.94 per cent decline in April-October FY26.
“Life and non-life insurers have an advantage of favourable base effect due to surrender value norms for life insurance and normalisation of 1/N accounting norms for non-life insurers,” said Saurabh Bhalerao, associate director, BFSI CareEdge Ratings.
In September, the GST Council rationalised GST on individual life and health insurance premiums to improve affordability.
Following this, the insurance industry has seen healthy growth after a few muted months.
“By November, the industry had adjusted to the GST norms and refocused on sales.
"Insurers have stepped up their emphasis on term insurance.
"The business season for life insurers has picked up as well,” said Alok Rungta, managing director and chief executive officer of Generali Central Life Insurance.
Separately, non-life insurers recorded their highest monthly growth of the year in November.
General insurers posted 22.4 per cent Y-o-Y growth in premiums to Rs 22,418.7 crore, while standalone health insurance (SAHI) companies saw 36.12 per cent growth to Rs 3,709.77 crore.
“Growth is likely to be driven by the motor and crop segments.
"Private multi-line insurers reported a surge of 35.5 per cent Y-o-Y in gross direct premium income, outperforming public-sector multi-line insurers, which recorded a 0.4 per cent Y-o-Y decline.
"SAHIs posted growth of 35.8 per cent Y-o-Y,” analysts at Nuvama said in a note.
In the April-November period of FY26, life insurance NBP grew 9.8 per cent Y-o-Y to Rs 2.67 trillion.
LIC’s NBP increased 8.1 per cent Y-o-Y to Rs 1.56 trillion, while private insurers reported 12.15 per cent Y-o-Y growth to Rs 1.13 trillion.
Non-life insurers recorded 8.01 per cent Y-o-Y growth to Rs 2.22 trillion in the same period.
General insurers grew 6.5 per cent Y-o-Y to Rs 1.86 trillion, and standalone health insurers reported 12.20 per cent Y-o-Y growth to Rs 27,026.86 crore.
Despite the sector’s healthy growth, shares of most listed insurers ended lower on Monday. New India Assurance saw the sharpest decline at 1.92 per cent, followed by ICICI Prudential Life Insurance (1.57 per cent) and LIC (1.42 per cent).
ICICI Lombard General Insurance and HDFC Life Insurance fell 0.67 per cent and 0.55 per cent respectively, while Go Digit General Insurance (-0.40 per cent) and SBI Life Insurance (-0.15 per cent) also ended in the red.
In contrast, only two companies reported gains: Max Financial Services rose 0.30 per cent, and Star Health & Allied Insurance posted the strongest increase at 0.84 per cent.
“There was an extraordinary rally in insurance stocks over the last 6-12 months of more than 20 per cent.
"So, there may have been some profit-booking during the day. Broader market weakness also likely weighed on insurance stocks,” said Sunny Agrawal, head – fundamental research, SBI Securities.