Chennai, July 3 (IANS) Ever heard of a sectoral regulator giving targets for the industry as a whole and also for the individual players?

Well, it happened in the insurance sector with the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India’s (IRDAI) Chairman Debasish Panda, at his meeting with the heads of non-life and reinsurance companies at Hyderabad on Friday.  “The IRDAI is now looking at the market developmental role. All these years, the Authority was carrying out the regulatory role,” a senior industry official told IANS preferring anonymity.  Pointing out the low penetration of the non-life sector in the country – about 1 per cent- two decades after opening up the sector, Panda said the global average of insurance penetration is 4.16 per cent.  He said the target penetration rate is 2.52 per cent by FY27 and it means the Indian non-life sector would grow from Rs 2.20 lakh crore premium from FY22 to a whopping Rs 11.73 lakh crore by FY27.  Panda also listed out the target for all the non-life insurance companies.  At the meeting Panda sounded like a consultant or a CEO of an insurance company but certainly not like a sectoral regulator.  Target the low hanging fruits, he told the insurers and also cited a couple of low hanging ones.