INSURANCE HISTORY · 1750 BC TO TODAY
From a Babylonian trading loan to an Indian market open to full foreign ownership, insurance has always been one idea: a loss that would ruin one person, shared by many.
DRAG THROUGH FOUR THOUSAND YEARS
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WORLD C. 1750 BC · BABYLON TURNING POINT
Its laws describe a loan to a trader that is forgiven if the goods are lost on the way. Known as bottomry, it is the oldest recorded way of passing a trading risk to someone else.
WORLD C. 800 BC · RHODES TURNING POINT
When cargo is thrown overboard to save a ship, everyone with goods aboard shares the loss in proportion. Cargo policies still apply this rule, now called general average.
INDIA C. 300 BC · MAURYAN INDIA TURNING POINT
Describes pooling resources so they can be shared out after fire, flood, epidemic or famine. IRDAI traces Indian insurance back to this text.
WORLD 23 OCT 1347 · GENOA TURNING POINT
A Genoese contract insuring the ship Santa Clara. Cover could now be written and enforced as an agreement of its own, separate from a loan. A Genoese contract from 1343 may be older still.
WORLD 1601 · ENGLAND
The Merchants' Assurances Act sets up a court to hear policy disputes. Francis Bacon backed it so that a lost ship would fall lightly on many merchants instead of ruining one.
WORLD SEP 1666 · LONDON
Most of the City burns and nobody holds fire insurance to pay for rebuilding. The first fire insurer opens within fifteen years.
WORLD 1680 · LONDON
Nicholas Barbon, a builder working on the rebuilt city, opens the Fire Office to insure houses against fire.
WORLD 1688 · LONDON TURNING POINT
Shipowners and merchants meet at Lloyd's to insure voyages, each underwriter writing his name under the share of the risk he accepts. It grows into Lloyd's of London.
WORLD 1706 · LONDON
The Amicable Society starts with 2,000 members and each year shares a fund among the families of members who died.
WORLD APR 1710 · LONDON TURNING POINT
Grown from a business Charles Povey began in 1708. Through later mergers it became Royal & Sun Alliance, and it is counted the oldest insurance company still in business.
WORLD 1752 · PHILADELPHIA
The Philadelphia Contributionship inspects each house before insuring it and sets the rate by what it finds. It is the oldest property insurer in the United States.
WORLD 1762 · LONDON TURNING POINT
The first insurer to price life cover by age from a table of death rates. Every modern life premium is worked out the same way.
WORLD 1774 · ENGLAND
Buying cover on a stranger's life had become a form of betting. The Act bans any life policy where the buyer has no interest in the person insured, and insurable interest becomes law.
INDIA 1818 · CALCUTTA TURNING POINT
The first life insurer on Indian soil, set up by Europeans mainly to cover European lives. Indians who could buy cover were usually charged more.
INDIA 1850 · CALCUTTA
India's first general insurer, set up by the British.
INDIA 1870 · BOMBAY TURNING POINT
The first Indian life insurer, and the first to cover Indian lives at normal rates.
WORLD 1871 · LONDON
Parliament incorporates Lloyd's, giving its committee the power to make byelaws for the whole market.
WORLD MAY 1883 · GERMANY TURNING POINT
Germany makes sickness insurance compulsory for workers, paying sick pay and medical costs. It is the world's first national social health insurance scheme.
INDIA 1906 · CALCUTTA
The oldest of the four public sector general insurers that still operate today.
WORLD 1906 · UNITED KINGDOM TURNING POINT
Writes English marine insurance law into one statute, in force from 1 January 1907. India's own Marine Insurance Act of 1963 follows it closely.
INDIA 1907 · INDIA
The first company to underwrite every class of general insurance.
INDIA 1912 · INDIA
The first law to regulate life insurance business in India.
INDIA 1919 · BOMBAY
Founded by Sir Dorabji Tata. It was nationalised in 1973 along with the rest of general insurance.
INDIA 1928 · INDIA
Lets the government collect statistics on the life and general business written in India by Indian and foreign insurers.
INDIA 1938 · INDIA TURNING POINT
The first law to cover general insurance as well as life. Amended many times since, it is still the main law every Indian insurer works under.
INDIA 1939 · INDIA
The Motor Vehicles Act requires every vehicle on the road to be insured against injury to others. The 1988 Act that replaced it kept the rule.
INDIA 19 JAN 1956 · INDIA
An ordinance brings 245 life insurers and provident societies, Indian and foreign, under government control.
INDIA 1 SEP 1956 · INDIA TURNING POINT
The Life Insurance Corporation of India takes over the nationalised business and has the life market almost to itself until 2000.
INDIA 1 AUG 1963 · INDIA
India's marine insurance law comes into force, modelled closely on the English Act of 1906. Cargo and hull policies written in India are still governed by it.
INDIA 1972 · INDIA TURNING POINT
From 1 January 1973, 107 insurers are merged into four companies: National, New India, Oriental and United India.
INDIA APR 1993 · INDIA
Appointed to review the sector, it reports in January 1994 and recommends letting private and foreign-backed insurers back in under an independent regulator.
INDIA 11 NOV 1998 · INDIA
New rules create the Insurance Ombudsman, a free way for policyholders to challenge an insurer's decision without going to court. The Insurance Ombudsman Rules of 2017 replaced them.
INDIA 1999 · INDIA TURNING POINT
Parliament creates the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, which becomes a statutory body in April 2000.
INDIA 23 OCT 2000 · INDIA TURNING POINT
HDFC Life is registered as the first private life insurer since nationalisation. Foreign partners can own up to 26 per cent of an Indian insurer.
WORLD 11 SEP 2001 · NEW YORK
Insurers paid about $32.5 billion in claims, the costliest terrorism loss on record. Reinsurers then withdrew terrorism cover around the world.
INDIA 1 APR 2002 · INDIA
With global reinsurers no longer covering terrorism, India's general insurers pool the risk together, run by GIC Re.
RFS 2004 · UDAIPUR, RAJASTHAN
Founded in 2004, as India was modernising its insurance market and professional advisory standards were being newly defined.
WORLD AUG 2005 · NEW ORLEANS TURNING POINT
More than $100 billion of insured losses in today's money, still the costliest insured catastrophe since 1900.
INDIA 1 APR 2008 · INDIA
Cashless hospital cover for families below the poverty line, the first national health insurance scheme for unorganised workers.
INDIA 2015 · INDIA
The foreign investment cap in Indian insurers rises from 26 to 49 per cent.
INDIA 9 MAY 2015 · INDIA
Low-cost life and accident cover sold through bank accounts, to reach people who had no insurance at all.
WORLD 1 JAN 2016 · EUROPEAN UNION
Insurers in the EU must hold capital that matches the risks across their whole balance sheet.
INDIA 18 FEB 2016 · INDIA
A single national crop insurance scheme protecting farmers against loss of yield.
INDIA 23 SEP 2018 · RANCHI TURNING POINT
Hospital cover of up to ₹5 lakh per family a year for the poorest 40 per cent of the country. The government calls it the largest health assurance scheme in the world.
INDIA 2021 · INDIA
The cap rises again, from 49 to 74 per cent.
WORLD 15 JAN 2021 · UNITED KINGDOM TURNING POINT
In the FCA test case the Supreme Court rules that many business interruption policies must pay for pandemic losses, affecting about 370,000 policyholders.
INDIA 17 MAY 2022 · MUMBAI
The government sells part of its stake and raises ₹20,557 crore, the largest IPO in India at the time.
WORLD 1 JAN 2023 · WORLDWIDE
A new global accounting standard changes how insurers report the profit on their contracts.
WORLD JAN 2025 · LOS ANGELES
Early estimates put insured losses above $30 billion, likely the costliest wildfire insurers have ever paid for.
INDIA 22 SEP 2025 · INDIA
After the 56th GST Council meeting, individual life and health premiums, family floaters included, move from 18 per cent GST to nil. Group and corporate policies still carry 18 per cent.
INDIA 20 DEC 2025 · INDIA TURNING POINT
The Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha Act lifts the foreign investment cap from 74 to 100 per cent. Parliament passed it on 16 and 17 December.
INDIA 2026 · INDIA
IRDAI's single marketplace to compare, buy, service and claim on any policy. Proposed in 2022, it has missed several launch dates, and the regulator now says November 2026.
RFS SEP 2026 · CLAIMSDESK.IN
Insurance claims run end to end, including on policies placed elsewhere.
DRAG TO TURN · CLICK A CITY
Era 6 · Open markets, bigger losses
EVENTS ON THE RECORD
TURNING POINTS
SOURCES CHECKED
YEARS OF RFS
C. 1750 BC BABYLON
Its laws describe a loan to a trader that is forgiven if the goods are lost on the way. Known as bottomry, it is the oldest recorded way of passing a trading risk to someone else.
C. 800 BC RHODES
When cargo is thrown overboard to save a ship, everyone with goods aboard shares the loss in proportion. Cargo policies still apply this rule, now called general average.
C. 300 BC MAURYAN INDIA
Describes pooling resources so they can be shared out after fire, flood, epidemic or famine. IRDAI traces Indian insurance back to this text.
23 OCT 1347 GENOA
A Genoese contract insuring the ship Santa Clara. Cover could now be written and enforced as an agreement of its own, separate from a loan. A Genoese contract from 1343 may be older still.
1601 ENGLAND
The Merchants' Assurances Act sets up a court to hear policy disputes. Francis Bacon backed it so that a lost ship would fall lightly on many merchants instead of ruining one.
SEP 1666 LONDON
Most of the City burns and nobody holds fire insurance to pay for rebuilding. The first fire insurer opens within fifteen years.
1680 LONDON
Nicholas Barbon, a builder working on the rebuilt city, opens the Fire Office to insure houses against fire.
1688 LONDON
Shipowners and merchants meet at Lloyd's to insure voyages, each underwriter writing his name under the share of the risk he accepts. It grows into Lloyd's of London.
1706 LONDON
The Amicable Society starts with 2,000 members and each year shares a fund among the families of members who died.
APR 1710 LONDON
Grown from a business Charles Povey began in 1708. Through later mergers it became Royal & Sun Alliance, and it is counted the oldest insurance company still in business.
1752 PHILADELPHIA
The Philadelphia Contributionship inspects each house before insuring it and sets the rate by what it finds. It is the oldest property insurer in the United States.
1762 LONDON
The first insurer to price life cover by age from a table of death rates. Every modern life premium is worked out the same way.
1774 ENGLAND
Buying cover on a stranger's life had become a form of betting. The Act bans any life policy where the buyer has no interest in the person insured, and insurable interest becomes law.
1818 CALCUTTA
The first life insurer on Indian soil, set up by Europeans mainly to cover European lives. Indians who could buy cover were usually charged more.
1850 CALCUTTA
India's first general insurer, set up by the British.
1870 BOMBAY
The first Indian life insurer, and the first to cover Indian lives at normal rates.
1871 LONDON
Parliament incorporates Lloyd's, giving its committee the power to make byelaws for the whole market.
MAY 1883 GERMANY
Germany makes sickness insurance compulsory for workers, paying sick pay and medical costs. It is the world's first national social health insurance scheme.
1906 UNITED KINGDOM
Writes English marine insurance law into one statute, in force from 1 January 1907. India's own Marine Insurance Act of 1963 follows it closely.
1906 CALCUTTA
The oldest of the four public sector general insurers that still operate today.
1907 INDIA
The first company to underwrite every class of general insurance.
1912 INDIA
The first law to regulate life insurance business in India.
1919 BOMBAY
Founded by Sir Dorabji Tata. It was nationalised in 1973 along with the rest of general insurance.
1928 INDIA
Lets the government collect statistics on the life and general business written in India by Indian and foreign insurers.
1938 INDIA
The first law to cover general insurance as well as life. Amended many times since, it is still the main law every Indian insurer works under.
1939 INDIA
The Motor Vehicles Act requires every vehicle on the road to be insured against injury to others. The 1988 Act that replaced it kept the rule.
LIFE · 1956
SEPARATE INSURERS
GENERAL · 1972 TO 1973
SEPARATE INSURERS
19 JAN 1956 INDIA
An ordinance brings 245 life insurers and provident societies, Indian and foreign, under government control.
1 SEP 1956 INDIA
The Life Insurance Corporation of India takes over the nationalised business and has the life market almost to itself until 2000.
1 AUG 1963 INDIA
India's marine insurance law comes into force, modelled closely on the English Act of 1906. Cargo and hull policies written in India are still governed by it.
1972 INDIA
From 1 January 1973, 107 insurers are merged into four companies: National, New India, Oriental and United India.
APR 1993 INDIA
Appointed to review the sector, it reports in January 1994 and recommends letting private and foreign-backed insurers back in under an independent regulator.
11 NOV 1998 INDIA
New rules create the Insurance Ombudsman, a free way for policyholders to challenge an insurer's decision without going to court. The Insurance Ombudsman Rules of 2017 replaced them.
1999 INDIA
Parliament creates the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, which becomes a statutory body in April 2000.
THE SIZE OF A MODERN LOSS
Insured losses from three disasters, drawn to scale by area. One hurricane cost insurers about three times the September 11 attacks.
As each event's source reports them: Katrina in today's money, Los Angeles an early estimate.
2004 · UDAIPUR, RAJASTHAN
23 OCT 2000 INDIA
HDFC Life is registered as the first private life insurer since nationalisation. Foreign partners can own up to 26 per cent of an Indian insurer.
11 SEP 2001 NEW YORK
Insurers paid about $32.5 billion in claims, the costliest terrorism loss on record. Reinsurers then withdrew terrorism cover around the world.
1 APR 2002 INDIA
With global reinsurers no longer covering terrorism, India's general insurers pool the risk together, run by GIC Re.
OUR STORY BEGINS · 2004 · UDAIPUR, RAJASTHAN
Founded in 2004, as India was modernising its insurance market and professional advisory standards were being newly defined.
AUG 2005 NEW ORLEANS
More than $100 billion of insured losses in today's money, still the costliest insured catastrophe since 1900.
1 APR 2008 INDIA
Cashless hospital cover for families below the poverty line, the first national health insurance scheme for unorganised workers.
2015 INDIA
The foreign investment cap in Indian insurers rises from 26 to 49 per cent.
9 MAY 2015 INDIA
Low-cost life and accident cover sold through bank accounts, to reach people who had no insurance at all.
1 JAN 2016 EUROPEAN UNION
Insurers in the EU must hold capital that matches the risks across their whole balance sheet.
18 FEB 2016 INDIA
A single national crop insurance scheme protecting farmers against loss of yield.
23 SEP 2018 RANCHI
Hospital cover of up to ₹5 lakh per family a year for the poorest 40 per cent of the country. The government calls it the largest health assurance scheme in the world.
WHO MAY OWN AN INDIAN INSURER
When private insurers returned in 2000, a foreign partner could hold 26 per cent. Each step since needed an Act of Parliament, the last in December 2025.
15 JAN 2021 UNITED KINGDOM
In the FCA test case the Supreme Court rules that many business interruption policies must pay for pandemic losses, affecting about 370,000 policyholders.
2021 INDIA
The cap rises again, from 49 to 74 per cent.
17 MAY 2022 MUMBAI
The government sells part of its stake and raises ₹20,557 crore, the largest IPO in India at the time.
1 JAN 2023 WORLDWIDE
A new global accounting standard changes how insurers report the profit on their contracts.
JAN 2025 LOS ANGELES
Early estimates put insured losses above $30 billion, likely the costliest wildfire insurers have ever paid for.
22 SEP 2025 INDIA
After the 56th GST Council meeting, individual life and health premiums, family floaters included, move from 18 per cent GST to nil. Group and corporate policies still carry 18 per cent.
20 DEC 2025 INDIA
The Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha Act lifts the foreign investment cap from 74 to 100 per cent. Parliament passed it on 16 and 17 December.
2026 INDIA
IRDAI's single marketplace to compare, buy, service and claim on any policy. Proposed in 2022, it has missed several launch dates, and the regulator now says November 2026.
OUR CLAIMS ARM · SEP 2026 · CLAIMSDESK.IN
Insurance claims run end to end, including on policies placed elsewhere.
Visit claimsdesk.in ↗THE HISTORY BEHIND YOUR COVER
Five covers RFS arranges today, and the moment in the record where each one began.
QUICK ANSWERS
IRDAI traces Indian insurance back to Kautilya's Arthashastra, around 300 BC, which describes pooling resources to share out after fire, flood, epidemic or famine. The first life insurer on Indian soil was the Oriental Life Insurance Company, set up in Calcutta in 1818.
c. 300 BC: Kautilya's Arthashastra →1818: Oriental Life Insurance Company →
On 1 September 1956. An ordinance of 19 January 1956 had brought 245 life insurers and provident societies under government control, and the Life Insurance Corporation of India took over that business. It had the life market almost to itself until 2000.
1 Sep 1956: LIC is formed →19 Jan 1956: Life insurance is nationalised →
In 1972. From 1 January 1973, 107 insurers were merged into four companies: National, New India, Oriental and United India.
The IRDA Act of 1999 created the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority, a statutory body from April 2000. On 23 October 2000 HDFC Life was registered as the first private life insurer since nationalisation.
Up to 100 per cent, under the Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha Act of December 2025. The cap was 26 per cent when private insurers returned in 2000, 49 per cent from 2015 and 74 per cent from 2021.
20 Dec 2025: 100% foreign ownership allowed →2015: Foreign ownership raised to 49% →2021: Foreign ownership raised to 74% →
The oldest surviving one is a Genoese contract of 23 October 1347 insuring the ship Santa Clara, though one from 1343 may be older. Long before that, the Code of Hammurabi, around 1750 BC, described bottomry: a trader's loan forgiven if the goods were lost.
23 Oct 1347: The oldest surviving insurance contract →c. 1750 BC: Code of Hammurabi →
FROM BABYLON TO UDAIPUR
Rakshit Financial Services, an insurance advisory in Udaipur, was founded in 2004 as India was modernising its insurance market. Today our claims arm, Claims Desk by RFS, runs claims end to end, including on policies placed elsewhere.
CLICK A CITY TO OPEN ITS STORY