India’s life insurance industry recorded a 20.7% year-on-year increase in new business premium (NBP) to ₹47,004.84 crore in July 2026, compared with ₹38,958 crore in July 2025. The pace of growth accelerated sharply from 13% in June, supported by strong premium mobilisation by both the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and private sector insurers. (Business Standard)
New business premium represents the premium received by insurers from policies sold and issued for the first time during the reporting period. Data released by the Life Insurance Council showed that LIC continued to account for the larger share of industry premiums during July. (Business Standard)
LIC Premium Rises Nearly 24%
LIC’s NBP increased 23.77% year-on-year to ₹27,993.6 crore during July. Private life insurers collectively reported 16.34% growth to ₹19,011.23 crore. (Business Standard)
Growth at LIC was primarily driven by the group insurance business. The corporation’s group premium rose 29.96% to ₹21,536.67 crore, while its individual premium increased 6.81% to ₹6,456.93 crore. (Business Standard)
Private insurers also registered healthy expansion across both segments. Their individual business premium increased 10.9% to ₹10,555.6 crore, while group business premium grew 23.84% to ₹8,455.6 crore. (Business Standard)
Group Business Drives Industry Growth
At the overall industry level, individual business premium increased 9.35% to ₹17,012.53 crore, whereas group business expanded significantly faster at 28.17% to ₹29,992.3 crore during July. The figures indicate that group policies were the principal driver of the month’s strong premium growth. (Business Standard)
Among major private life insurers, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance recorded 20.7% growth, taking its NBP to ₹2,300.92 crore. Bajaj Life Insurance grew 20.3% to ₹1,386.17 crore, while HDFC Life Insurance reported 15.53% growth to ₹3,528.41 crore. (Business Standard)
Axis Max Life Insurance’s NBP rose 15.46% to ₹1,252.47 crore, while SBI Life Insurance recorded comparatively moderate growth of 2.53% to ₹3,898.7 crore. (Business Standard)
April-July Premium Crosses ₹1.55 Lakh Crore
The strong July performance also improved the industry’s cumulative growth for the first four months of FY27. During April-July 2026, total NBP increased 17.45% year-on-year to approximately ₹1.56 lakh crore, compared with growth of about 16.6% during the April-June quarter. (Business Standard)
Private insurers continued to grow faster on a cumulative basis, registering a 23% increase in NBP to ₹62,082.8 crore during April-July. LIC’s cumulative new business premium increased 14.04% to ₹93,542.49 crore. (Business Standard)
Policy volumes also improved, although at a slower rate than premium collections. Life insurers issued 7.41 million policies during April-July FY27, up 4.37% from the corresponding period a year earlier. LIC sold 4.54 million policies, up 0.76%, while private insurers recorded stronger policy-volume growth of 10.55% to 2.87 million policies. (Business Standard)
The contrast between 17.45% premium growth and 4.37% policy-volume growth during April-July indicates that premium mobilisation is expanding considerably faster than the number of policies issued, while private insurers continue to gain momentum in both premium and policy growth. (Business Standard)
