But then you give it a thought for a moment. You realize you have not heard even remotest of your family or friends having ever been affected by such accidents. If Gujarat quake had happened close by you would have immediately gone for insurance without the agent doing much selling. The region recorded one of the highest number of insurance policies sold in the history of insurance business after the quake.
But quake in Gujarat is a history now. Unless it repeats the spurt in the business is unlikely.
Home insurance in India is regarded as largely a safeguard of low significance. Often such are policies are institutional in nature or are ones availed by large business houses or top executives. Then there are big housing societies which would opt for home insurance.
Home insurance companies in India too give home sector a small consideration. The major chunk of the insurance business is taken by vehicle, life followed by insurance-cum-investment instruments.
The latter, insurance-cum-investment business, has come to stay as the fastest growing market as it is more closely linked with tax exemption regulations.
Says Ramanan, a business executive with a multinational, " I have never believed in long-term measly savings though I know even they add up to some tidy sums of money; I have invested in short-term insurance-investment instruments with lock-in as long as three years; and let me tell you I have done fairly well, call it luck or what you may."
