Ajay Seth, Chairman, IRDAI

In order to expedite the regulatory alignment process and incorporating reforms of SBSR Act(the Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Act, the IRDAI granted in-principle approval for drafting and publishing the draft regulations for stakeholder consultation with regard to the regulations which are required to be framed pursuant to SBSR Act, said the IRDAI.

Hyderabad: After a bit of hiatus, the Indian Insurance regulator IRDAI has issued two final licenses, on Monday, to M/s Kiwi General Insurance Limited, a 100 per cent Indian venture and Allianz Jio Reinsurance, 50:50 joint venture between Jio Finance, the non-banking finance company(NBFC) of Reliance Industries and Germany major Allianz.

These are the first two licenses issued under the chairmnship of Ajay Seth, who joined the IRDAI in September, 2025.

Kiwi General Insurance is a joint venture between private equity firm West Bridge and Neelesh Garg,a former CEO of Tata AIG General Insurance. West Bridge, which has a majority stake in Star Health, holds around 70 per cent while Garg has 30 per cent stake in the company.

Sumir Chadha Deepak Ramineedi are the common board of directors representing WestBridge Capital in both Star Health Insurance and WestBridge Capital.

It is belived the company has a total capital base of Rs 200 crore, almost double than the regulatory required capital of Rs 100 crore.It had received R1(the initial approval) from the IRDAI in July,2025.

Allianz Jio Reinsurance will be having a capital base of Rs 300 crore against a regulatory required capital of Rs 200 crore. Jio Financial Services on last Thursday had subscribed to 14.75 crore equity shares of Rs10 each in its joint venture, Allianz Jio Reinsurance Ltd, for cash at par, aggregating Rs147.45 crore. Jio Financial’s total investment in Allianz Jio Reinsurance now stands at Rs150 crore.

The 134th Meeting of the IRDAI was held on 9th March 2026. During the meeting,
the regulator considered various regulatory matters, said the IRDAI.

The regulatory approval was accorded for the grant of Certificate of Registration to two insurance entities. The IRDAI accorded approval to one reinsurer, M/s Allianz Jio Reinsurance Limited, and one general insurer, M/s Kiwi General Insurance Limited, enabling them to undertake business in accordance with the applicable regulatory framework, informed the IRDAI.

The IRDAI also deliberated on the regulatory framework required after the
enactment of the Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Act,
2025 (“SBSR Act”). The SBSR Act was notified on 21st December 2025 and came
into force with effect from 5th February 2026. The legislation amends the Insurance Act, 1938 and the IRDA Act, 1999, thereby necessitating the framing of new regulations and amendments to existing regulations to align the regulatory framework with the provisions of the new law.

In order to expedite the regulatory alignment process and incorporating reforms of
SBSR Act, the IRDAI granted in-principle approval for drafting and publishing the
draft regulations for stakeholder consultation with regard to the regulations which are
required to be framed pursuant to SBSR Act, said the IRDAI.

With Kiwi General Insurance, there are now 35 general general inurers, including seven standalone healone insurers(SAHIs), in the country.

This is also the first time any majority stake holder in a health insurance company(West Bridge) will be allowed to float a general insurance company.

Earlier, Anil Ambani promoted Reliance Capital, now defunct, was allowed to set up both – a general insurance company and a health insurance company though the health insurance company was merged with the general insurance company afterwards at the insstruction of the IRDAI.

The existing IRDA regulations allows an entity to be a majority promoter, holding more than 25%, only in one life, one general, one health, and one reinsurance company.

However, an entity as an investor can invest upto 25 per cent in more than one company.

The entry of Allianz Jio Reinsurance into Rs 1 trillion Indian reinsurance industry is timely as the Indian general insurance market will have its majority of its renewals of business on Apr1. The competition in the market will further hot up as there are two other Indian reinsurers, state owned GIC Re, Value Attics Reinsurance , a private-sector reinsurer founded by Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Group and Kamlesh Goyal, 12 foreign reinsurance branches(FRBs) set up by some of the biggest global reinsurers and almost 20 new reinsurers that have set up their operation in the GIFT-IFSC, India’s sole international finance services centre(IFSC) in the recent months.