January general insurance data: Premiums up 15%; Go Digit leads growth

India’s general insurance sector continued to report year-on-year growth in January, even as performance varied across insurers, according to latest industry data.

In January, Go Digit General Insurance recorded the sharpest increase among listed private players, with gross premiums up 34% compared with the same month last year. ICICI Lombard General Insurance saw premiums rise 16% YoY, while Bajaj General Insurance reported a 9% increase over January 2025.

Across the sector, general insurance industry premiums grew about 15% YoY in January. Standalone health insurers expanded faster, with premiums up roughly 25% YoY during the month.

What happened in December

The January performance follows a strong December

for the non-life insurance segment. Gross direct premiums underwritten by general insurers climbed 13.7% YoY to ₹28,447 crore in December 2025, according to General Insurance Council data.

Private-sector general insurers reported a 14.8% rise in December premiums to ₹23,748 crore, while state-owned insurers underwrote ₹10,126 crore, up 14.7% YoY. Other general insurers contributed ₹13,621 crore, marking a 14.9% increase.

Standalone health insurers saw gross direct premiums jump 38.8% to ₹4,260 crore in December.

Among individual insurers in December, Go Digit premiums rose 22.2% YoY, ICICI Lombard gained 16.1%, New India Assurance increased 16.6%, and Bajaj General Insurance posted a 6.3% rise. In the health segment, Niva Bupa premiums surged 52.7%, while Star Health grew 23.7% YoY.

For the April–December period of FY25, non-life insurers underwrote ₹2.50 lakh crore in gross direct premiums, up 8.6% from a year earlier, though the data is not strictly comparable due to revised IRDAI reporting formats from October 2024.