Bajaj Allianz General Insurance plans to focus on event insurance in the southern market. About 200 event insurance policies this year, of which 50 % were for festivals, reflecting a 13-14 % growth over the previous year.
“The trend has been growing over the past two years,” Sasikumar Adidamu, Chief Technical Officer – Non Motor, Bajaj Allianz, told BusinessLine. “With the change in lifestyles, the events are being conducted in a grander way. As the amounts at stake are high, people are increasingly looking to protect the possible loss by taking event insurance.”
Maharashtra, Gujarat and West Bengal are among the leading markets, he said. “Specific festivals are strongly rooted in these States — such as Ganesh Chaturthi in Maharashtra and Gujarat, Navratri in Gujarat and Durga Puja in West Bengal. We don’t differentiate between zones, but this is a relatively new product. We are seeing some action in Hyderabad, and expect the southern market to pick up soon.”
At present, most of the insured events in the South are music concerts and sports events and various factors causing losses during events could be natural calamities, accidents, fire and even thefts.
The average premium for an event size of about Rs. 10 crores ranges from Rs. 3 lakh to Rs. 3.5 lakh.
