BANGALORE: India's insurance market is growing enormously but is yet to reach the majority of population. Privatization is a good mechanism to increase this reach. In most of the sectors, private participation has weakened the incumbent players but in the insurance segment, the traditional players still dominate.

With the new Insurance Act coming up it is surely going to benefit the policy holders with several features. However, in certain areas, such as mergers and acquisition, and with regard to listing of insurance companies, the Bill proposes to curb the regulator's powers, which might have a detrimental impact.

Let’s have a look at some of the features or the benefits of the new Insurance Act:

1. Flexibility in premiums

The new bill proposes to give insurance companies the freedom to collect premiums in installments for more products. As of now general insurance companies are allowed to collect premiums in the form of installments only in health insurance.

But if they are given the freedom to collect premiums for products like motor and fire, this will help them in product diversification and also give flexibility to customers.