With almost two-dozen players fighting for new customers, life insurance market in India has become extremely competitive. Yet, Life Insurance Corporation, the market leader, has been able to increase its market share from 61 percent to 65 percent last fiscal. According to D.K. Mehrotra, Managing Director, LIC, providing the best of products and services to customers is the key to maintaining market share.

Excerpts from an interview -

With Indian economy looking up, do you expect a better growth in new business this fiscal?

We had a 33-percent growth last year. In a competitive environment, we cannot say that we will grow at the same rate this year. Any growth has to be supported by proper infrastructure. This year, we have targeted to collect Rs 54,000 crore in the first premium income and sell 4.66 crore polices - that will be a 25-percent growth in new business premium and 20-percent growth in policies.