Parag Gupta, Chief Executive Officer of global reinsurer SCOR’s India branch, has said that the country’s low insurance penetration, expanding infrastructure, growing catastrophe exposure, and rising demand for new solutions such as surety bonds, parametric covers, cyber and specialty risks, will inevitably require deeper and more sophisticated reinsurance support.
At the third edition of the Global Reinsurance Summit 2026, Gupta shared his insights during a Fireside Chat “Unlocking India’s Re-insurance Potential: A Market on the rise,” which was moderated by Deepak Sood, Member Non-Life, IRDAI, India’s regulator.
He explained that the global reinsurance market is currently navigating a softening cycle with abundant capital, while simultaneously adapting to a rapidly shifting risk profile, including climate volatility, cyber threats, geopolitical uncertainty, and emerging accumulation risks.
In these conditions, India currently represents only a small share of global reinsurance premiums, but that statistic masks the immense structural opportunity ahead, especially in newer, more innovative solutions.
Gupta said, “The Indian reinsurance market also has the greatest potential because the underlying direct insurance market has a huge potential due to low penetration, which is very important because there is a need to insure climate risk, there is a need for surety bonds, and new reinsurance solutions and bonds.”
Additionally, Gupta said that there needs to be a clear vision in mind, explaining that insurance for all is really about covering everywhere, not just a certain percentage of the GDP.
Gupta said, “If you’re able to cover everyone in the country, you’ve provided insurance to everyone and yet your classical penetration of the GDP is low. What it effectively means is that you have made insurance much more affordable. I think it’s a much better way to look at it. To do this, one of the key things that we have to address is the catastrophic risks.”
The pair emphasised that 2016 was a key historical inflexion point, when foreign reinsurance branches (FRBs) were first licensed in India. Since then, the market has evolved from limited capacity to a multi-layered ecosystem with stronger competition, better pricing discovery, with reinsurers increasingly seeking leadership roles rather than passive participation.
A recent regulatory reform, by the way of “Sabka Bhima, Sabki Raksha,” is further accelerating momentum. These reforms include 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) in insurance, reduction of capital thresholds for reinsurers from Rs. 5,000 crore to Rs. 1,000 crore, transition towards risk-based capital (RBC) and Ind AS 117/IFRS 17, redefining the definition of intermediaries to include managing general agents (MGA), among others.
He added, “If you look at the kind of opportunity the market is giving, we have ten FRBs, two Indian reinsurance companies, and at GIFT City, you have 14 reinsurers. Generally, in a global market, we say that the number of reinsurers should be 20% of the insurance companies, but in India, we have over 25% reinsurers now and 24 multiline GI companies, this is excluding L&H. I think India is in a very, very different spot, and maybe it’s opportunities which are driving it.”
Gupta, however, says that capacity and capital are paramount, and to attract investment and gain global trust, it is necessary to address risks, move to simple parametric solutions, and risk mitigation, transfer, and mapping.
He explained, “Catastrophes require addressing, work, talent, capital, proper risk modelling. We must always remember that the same thing, the same event, is catastrophic to one but not to the others. For one it’s an event, for another it’s a disaster. So, I think proper risk mapping, proper modelling, to see where the exposures are that is very essential for us to be able to come up with the proper products, solutions for the right segments of the population, for the right niches, so that we’re able to address that, moving towards parametric solutions.”
As India advances toward the vision of Insurance for All by 2047, reinsurance will be a cornerstone by providing capital, catastrophe capacity, advanced risk modelling, and long-term stability.
The discussion also underscored the strategic importance of GIFT IFSC, not just as a regulatory innovation, but as a global platform offering ease of doing business, ease of living, access to talent, and the ability to write regional and international reinsurance business from India.
