Tata-AIG Life Insurance Company is a joint venture established in April 2001 between India’s Tata Group and New York’s USD 60 billion insurance company AIG. The Tata Group, founded in 1868, is one of India’s oldest and largest corporate conglomerates, with annual revenues accounting for 3.2 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), and market capitalization of USD 65 billion. The Tata Group did not start selling micro insurance until its union with AIG yielded micro-life insurance products in August 2006. AIG earned its first micro insurance experience in 1996 with the creation of AIG Uganda.
Tata-AIG operates in 11 provinces in India, and maintains a strategic focus on smaller cities and rural villages. Tata-AIG identified the south eastern province of Kerala as a key growth area. Immediate plans to build 11 new offices and a stated goal of establishing the countries first 100 percent insured villages. Mr. Vijay Athreye, Head of Tata-AIG’s Rural and Micro Insurance suggest this could be accomplished by “focusing on capacity building at grassroots level and leveraging partnerships with rural Civil Society.” Tata-AIG has increased the number of insurance advisors in Kerala by 6,000 in the past year, with a countrywide increase from 25,000 to 70,000. Personnel increases are backed by the establishment of Micro Insurance Sales Offices (MISO) to increase the breadth of rural outreach. Bottom line results are evident by a greater than 200 percent increase in year-on- year growth both in terms of policies and premium.
By Brett Rudder, Research Assistant
Additional Resources:
August 14, 2008 Press Release: Tata-AIG Life identifies Kerala as key growth area
Business Standard, India: Tata-AIG enters micro risk mart
The Hindu, India: Good results for Tata AIG Life
Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) Working Group on Micro insurance Good and Bad Practices Case Study No. 14 – Tata-AIG Life Insurance Company Ltd. India
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