The general insurance industry in India was nationalised and a government company known as General Insurance Corporation (GIC) was formed by Central Government in 1972.
With effect from January 1, 1973, the erstwhile 107 Indian and foreign insurers who were operating in the country prior to nationalisation, were grouped into four operating companies, namely, (a) National Insurance Company Limited; (b) New India Assurance Company Limited; (c) Oriental Insurance
Company Limited and (d) United Insurance Company Limited. Except for aviation insurance of national airlines and crop insurance which is handled by GIC, all the four subsidiaries operate all over the country competing with one another in underwriting various classes of general insurance.
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The four companies have a network of 2699 branch offices, 1360 divisional offices and 92 regional offices spread all over the country. In the international market, the industry is operating in 16 countries directly through its agencies and in 14 countries through subsidiary and associate banks.
Some of the schemes in operation for the benefit of poor are the Personal Account Insurance Social Security Scheme, Hut Insurance Scheme and Crop Insurance Scheme for poor families in rural areas. The total assets and net worth of GIC grew by Rs. 26,424.03 crore and Rs. 4,759.13 crore respectively as on March 31, 2006.
During the year 2009 10, the net premium income of the corporation was Rs. 8776.87 crore as against Rs. 7402.33 crore in 2008-09. The net incurred claims were at Rs. 6,856.39 crore, i.e., 84.9 per cent as against Rs. 6217.14 crore hi 2008.