Bandhan Life Insurance MD & CEO Satishwar Balakrishnan
Bandhan Life Insurance, now in its second year of operations, has moved onto a steady growth path, clocking a new business premium of about ₹500 crore in the last fiscal—more than doubling year-on-year. With a presence across most product segments, the company is targeting around 30 per cent growth in the current fiscal, driven by a slew of initiatives, including the rollout of its own sales force. bussinessline spoke to Satishwar Balakrishnan on industry trends and the company’s business plans. Excerpts:
What was the overall impact of the waiver of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on individual life insurance premiums in the last financial year
From a customer’s perspective, it translates into a straight 18 per cent discount, improving affordability and acting as a strong demand stimulus. This served as a major trigger, bringing insurance into sharper public focus. When the Government exempts such a tax, it also signals that insurance is an essential service—an argument the industry has been making for several years, now further validated. From a business standpoint as well, there was a noticeable uptick attributable to the GST waiver. The exemption came into effect in October, and in that very month, industry business grew by close to 40 per cent. Even thereafter, while the first quarter after the waiver remained largely flat, subsequent quarters witnessed a steady rise. Importantly, the product mix has also shifted, with protection plans gaining traction. On our own website, we recorded a 30 per cent jump in traffic for term plans following the GST announcement.
Compared to health insurance, life insurance appears to be on the back foot. Post-Covid-19, the surge in health insurance business is greater than that of life insurance. What do you think is the reason?
Life insurance continues to be largely a push product, whereas health insurance has evolved into a pull product. Post-Covid-19, this shift has become more evident, with consumers increasingly seeking out health cover on their own. Health insurance offers a living benefit, and for the policyholder, the need can be immediate and tangible. As a necessity, it lends itself to greater self-realisation, as individuals can directly experience its value. In contrast, life insurance is more closely associated with death and is not something individuals typically buy for themselves, but rather for their loved ones. Despite these structural differences and challenges, demand for life cover has still seen an increase and is expected to expand further
Can you identify any new trends which are positive for the industry as well as a policyholder?
Till some time ago, life insurance policies, specifically the term life plans, were largely bought only by salaried people it was felt those are the kind of customer profile which will prefer and understand a term plan. However, of late, there has been a greater interest in buying life cover from the self-employed segment which has been noticed after we introduced a product which was specifically designed for the self-employed. we specifically promoted it with an additional discount to the self-employed customer base
What is your product line up and how has been the business mix?
We have a product in every category while earlier we were more term-specific. Now we have a product in all segments – participating, non-par, pension and gratuity. In last year’s business, close to 17 percent came from protection. A good 30 percent came from unit link and 25 percent each came from non-par and participating. So it’s a nice spread. Going forward, we will also be focusing on bringing in more riders and protection in sachet segments and smaller segments or rather smaller ticket size. We strongly believe there is also a good amount of protection business or potential even for a ₹10 lakh and ₹25 lakh rupee ticket size.
How has been Bandhan Life’s business performance during the last financial year? What are your expectations on growth in the current financial year?
In the last fiscal ended March 31, 2026, our New Business Premium (NBP) was around ₹485 to ₹500 crore registering a growth of about 107 percent from the previous year numbers. Naturally, we had a lower base in FY 25 and there was growth in FY 26 which was the second year for Bandan. We will continue to be a growth organization with a target of about 30 pc growth in the current fiscal year.
Published on April 20, 2026
