New India Assurance is India’s largest and oldest non-life insurer - a government-owned pillar that has protected the country’s factories, ships, cars, and families since 1919, when it was founded by Sir Dorabji Tata and then nationalised in 1973. It opened its first international branch in London just a year after formation and today operates across 24 countries, but its core remains the domestic market where it commands a 12.74% share of all general insurance premiums written. The recurring approach that explains everything else is disciplined underwriting: the company would rather walk away from a large corporate account than write business at a price that does not properly compensate for the risk, and it offsets the inevitable underwriting losses in a competitive market with investment income from its nearly ₹97,000 crore asset base. # Business segments Four engines that together cover almost every insurable risk in India - a health-and-accident franchise that is the largest single line, a motor book being deliberately reshaped for profitability, a property-and-engineering fortress where the company still leads, and a collection of specialist lines from marine to aviation to government schemes that deepen the moat. ## 1. Health and personal accident: the retail shield that touches one in every two premium rupees **Health insurance is now half the company’s domestic business, built on a mix of government schemes covering crores of lives, group policies for corporates, and a growing shelf of retail products sold online.** - **Government schemes provide the bedrock** - the company has been the insurer for Rajasthan’s state health programme since 2015, covering roughly 1.35 crore families with ₹25 lakh of sum insured per family, and it also runs the scheme for Lakshadweep covering 13,128 families. That is a stable, large-volume book that few competitors can replicate. - **Retail products are stacked for every need** - the shelf includes a standard mediclaim policy, a family floater, a top-up plan called Arogya Pragati Plus, a critical-illness cover that runs up to three years, a cancer-specific policy, and even a product for surrogate mothers and oocyte donors. All of these are available online, and digital marketing pilots are underway so the company can sell directly to consumers rather than only through intermediaries. - **Group health is being scrubbed for quality, not just volume** - the top 50 corporate clients are monitored at head-office level, claim audits have been raised to 30% of cases, and loss-making standalone group medical covers are being weeded out. The cashless facility has reached the industry average of 62% through a ‘Cashless Everywhere’ initiative that expanded the hospital network. ## 2. Motor insurance: a book being deliberately shrunk to become profitable **Motor is the second-largest line, but the company is consciously churning the portfolio - shedding high-loss accounts and writing only the business that meets its underwriting benchmarks.** - **Own-damage cover is the selective engine** - the own-damage segment covers damage to the insured vehicle itself, and the company is targeting retail customers and low-risk fleet segments while walking away from accounts where the loss ratio is too high. The claim settlement ratio on own-damage has improved to 94.40%. - **Third-party liability is a claims-heavy obligation** - motor third-party covers injury or damage to others, and the incurred claim ratio on a net earned premium basis was 96.99% in FY26, with 1,60,153 outstanding claims at year-end. The company runs 25 dedicated legal hubs and 132 satellite hubs just to handle these claims, and has shifted towards mediation and Lok Adalats to clear the backlog faster. - **Auto tie-ups lock in business at the point of sale** - partnerships with major car and two-wheeler brands contribute 31% of all motor premium, and 10 of the 12 tie-ups already have claim integration so that a customer can get cashless repairs without paperwork. The company is now approaching electric-vehicle manufacturers for new tie-ups. ## 3. Fire and engineering: the property fortress where the company still leads **In the business of insuring factories, infrastructure projects, and large industrial risks, New India commands a market share of over 17% in both fire and engineering - and it is adding covers that no one else offers.** - **The fire book is unusually profitable** - the incurred claim ratio in fire improved to 54.04% in FY26, meaning the company pays out only about half of every fire premium in claims, and the engineering book is even better at 25.22%. That is the kind of underwriting margin that funds the rest of the business. - **War cover fills a gap that Indian industry has lived with for decades** - standard fire policies in India have historically excluded losses from war and hostilities, so the company launched a standalone war insurance policy and a war add-on for its fire product, described as an industry first for small, medium, and large risks. This is protection that large industrial units and infrastructure projects could not buy domestically before. - **Large risks get a dedicated underwriting team** - the Techno Marketing vertical handles complex corporate and infrastructure accounts, writing policies including Stand Alone Terrorism coverage, with risk inspections conducted alongside global risk engineers and reinsurers. The company is not just selling a policy; it is assessing the risk before it quotes a price. - **Parametric insurance is the newest experiment** - launched in May 2025, ‘Nishchit Suraksha’ uses real-time data triggers like rainfall, temperature, or seismic activity to pay claims instantly, with no loss adjusters and no paperwork. It is designed for corporates, governments, farmers, and MSMEs who need certainty of payout rather than a lengthy claims process. ## 4. Specialist lines: marine, aviation, and liability - small premiums, deep moats **A collection of niche businesses where the company is either the market leader or the sole domestic provider, creating relationships that are hard for competitors to dislodge.** - **Marine insurance is a leadership position built over a century** - the company insures the majority of India’s inland and coastal vessels, fishing vessels, and sailing vessels, and it has been the market leader in the oil and energy segment since inception. It is the only insurer in India providing P&I (Protection and Indemnity) cover for coastal vessels, which means shipowners have no domestic alternative. - **The Bharat Maritime Pool is a sovereign-backed moat** - formed by Indian non-life insurers and backed by a Government of India guarantee of ₹12,980 crore, the pool provides indigenous capacity for shipowners’ P&I and hull risks, with claims up to $100 million met from the pool and the sovereign guarantee as a backstop beyond that. New India provides roughly ₹100 crore of underwriting capacity for war and conflict risks within this pool. - **Aviation insurance is a 40% market-share franchise** - the company is the preferred insurer for most major domestic airlines and the highest-capacity provider in the Indian aviation market, and it also underwrites satellite launch missions, seaplane operations, and MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul) facilities. Internationally, it acts as a reinsurer on 25 aviation programmes across the globe. - **Liability and niche covers are being built for a modernising economy** - the company has introduced Warranties & Indemnities insurance for M&A transactions, Pollution Legal Liability policies for gradual pollution risks, and cyber and crime liability covers. It also runs the Nuclear Pool and underwrites film insurance, event insurance, and jewellers block policies - lines where there are very few underwriters in the country. # Group structure and partners **The Government of India owns 85.44% of the company, and the international footprint is a mix of wholly-owned branches, three subsidiaries, and two associates - all of which make New India the only Indian non-life insurer with a genuine multinational presence.** - **Government ownership is the defining structural fact** - the Government of India holds 85.44% of the shares, making New India a public-sector undertaking under the Ministry of Finance, with roughly one lakh shareholders across other categories. - **Three subsidiaries extend the reach into Africa and the Caribbean** - Prestige Assurance Plc in Nigeria (78.32% held), a Trinidad & Tobago subsidiary (83.89% held) that also operates in St. Lucia, Dominica, St. Maarten, and Guyana, and a Sierra Leone subsidiary (100% held) that has been in run-off since 2003. - **Two associates and a TPA stake round out the strategic holdings** - the company holds 20% in India International Insurance in Singapore, an equity stake in KenIndia Assurance in Nairobi, and a 23.75% stake in Health Insurance TPA of India Limited, a third-party administrator that processes health claims. - **A bet on the industry’s digital future** - the company has invested in Bima Sugam India Federation, a not-for-profit digital platform being built under IRDAI’s oversight to let customers buy policies and settle claims from all insurers in one place.