From the time when the privatization of the insurance sector in India has taken place, the insurance business has been seen the beginning of numerous private concerns mainly joint ventures between large foreign insurance companies and Indian diversified conglomerate companies. The insurance industry in India has recorded significant growth with increasing awareness for life insurance need after the liberalization. As per the IRDA Annual report 2017-18, 68 insurance companies are in force in India comprising 24 life insurance companies, 27 general insurance companies, 6 standalone health insurers who exclusively do health insurance business and 11 are re-insurers including foreign re-insurers branches and Lloyd’s India till March 2018. There is massive competition among insurance companies on basis of price and services to attract the customers. The industry is rigorously engaged in innovating products, strong distribution channels, public relation and promotional campaigns by the insurance companies. The opening up of sector to the private players witnessed the introduction of a number of new products and possibly the Indian insurance market is one of the fastest growing markets because of some favourable factors viz. Emerging socio-economic changes, increased wealth, education and awareness of insurance needs. This paper is aimed to examine the status of private life insurance sector of India in present scenario as well as estimating future trend of insurance business of private life insurance sector in competitive market.

KEYWORDS:  Life Insurance, Liberalization, Joint Venture, Re-Insurers, Socio-Economic Changes.