Insurance law amendments will give a big boost to insurance market: Jaitley

India's insurance market will expand further once the Insurance Amendment Bill is passed by the Parliament, finance minister Arun Jaitley said while expressing a sense of satisfaction over the recommendations made by the parliamentary select committee with regard to the insurance amendment bill referred to it.

Addressing a joint forum of financial sector industries of the United Kingdom and India consisting of industry leaders from the two countries, the finance minister said two sides have identified a whole lot of financial sector industries such as insurance, banks, mutual funds and securities among the areas of cooperation between India and the UK.

Jerry Gimstone, chairman of the UK's Standard Life and co-chair for the India-UK Financial Partnership, said there was great potential for foreign investment in India in various sectors, including infrastructure, insurance and pension sectors among others. He also said that the UK being a major investor in India, will play an important role in making the prime minister's Make in India programme a success.

Uday Kotak, co-chair of the India-UK Financial Partnership said he was highly enthused by the finance minister's initiative to form the India UK Financial Partnership. He said cross border finance and investments offer tremendous opportunity for learning from the UK experience in the financial sector.

The India-UK Financial Partnership was jointly launched by the UK's chancellor of the exchequer and India's finance minister to deepen financial services links between India and the UK and strengthen co-operation between London and Mumbai, two of the world's leading financial centers.

Uday Kotak, executive vice chairman and managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank and Gerry Grimstone, chairman of Standard Life and The City UK, which represents the UK-based financial and related professional services industry, will co-chair this partnership.

The partnership will focus on the following work-streams:

• Development of corporate bond market
• Mutual sharing of expertise on financial sector and market regulation
• Enhancing financial training and qualification
• Financial inclusion
• Cross-border provision of financial and insurance services
• Pensions
• Internationalisation of the rupee
• Infrastructure funding

The partnership is about deepening the links between the two countries' financial services industries. The financial services industry underpins real economy and enables growth. Its objective is to identify specific and executable areas to deepen co-operation, provide mutual learnings and sharing of expertise across the industry from regulation to product development and training.