Profitability, Sustainability and Underwriting Performance of Indian Private Non-Life Insurers: A Linear Trend Approach

The profitability performance of non-life insurance companies is a critical indicator of financial stability, underwriting discipline, and long-term sustainability in a competitive and regulated market environment. This paper reports the trend behaviour of profitability ratios prescribed by IRDAI of fifteen Indian based general insurance companies, which have a working profitability of above of twelve years, in the period between 2012-2023. The six profitability indicators on which the analysis will be based include Net Incurred Claims to Net Earned Premium Ratio (NCNP), Combined Ratio (CB), Underwriting Balance Ratio (UB), Operating Profit Ratio (OP), Net Earnings Ratio (NE), and Return on Net Worth (RNW). The research approximates alpha and beta values and significant values and R-square values using linear time-series regression model in order to determine the direction, magnitude and consistency of profitability trends with time. The results indicate that there are diverse pattern of profitability by the insurers. The companies that have statistically significant changes in the key profitability parameters include Niva Bupa Health insurance, Raheja QBE general insurance, Reliance general insurance and SBI general insurance, which show the improvement in both the underwriting performance and operational efficiency. On the contrary, some insurers have mixed or weak performances, which is evidence of volatility in claims management, expense control and generation of returns. The study contributes to the existing literature by providing a systematic trend-based profitability assessment using regulatory-prescribed ratios, offering insights into the evolving financial resilience of India’s private non-life insurance sector.