Wadia, CGNU drop insurance JV plan

A possible reason for the fall-out could be CGNU8217;s decision to withdraw from the Indian non-life market totally as it was repositioning itself as a major international life insurance player globally, a Wadia group official said.

Over the months, global insurers have pulled out from major non-life market in Japan, US and South Africa, he said adding that another reason could be the complex nature of non-life insurance operation in India. Formed in 1998, CGNU was a post-merger result of two UK based life and non-life companies namely Commercial Union and General Accident respectively.

Bajaj Auto applies for non-life insurance:

Bajaj Auto today applied for entering into the non-life insurance sector taking the number of applicants to nine.

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority IRDA sources confirmed the move but was unaware of whether the company has tied up with a foreign company or the amount of stake that Bajaj Auto would hold in the company.

So far, only Reliance has decided to go solo in both life and non-life insurance ventures. The other companies that have applied to the IRDA include Prudential-ICICI, Dabur-All state, HDFC-Standard Life, Max-New York Life, Kotak-Old Mutual, IFFCO-Tokyo Marine and Sundaram-Royal Sunalliance.