mumbai kotak mahindra bank plans to enter the rs 77000 crore nonlife insurance market through a fullyowned subsidiary the bank on tuesday said that it has received the reserve bank of indias approval to enter the general insurance business an announcement that came a few days after the private sector lender decided to merge ing vysya bank with itself the general insurance company will be a subsidiary of the bank and initial capital of rs 100 crore has been contributed by the bank said mahesh balasubramanian executive vicepresident of kotak mahindra bank who has been appointed as the chief executive officer of the general insurance venture this will be the second nonlife insurance company completely owned by an indian promoter other than reliance general insurance kotak mahindras life insurance venture kotak mahindra old mutual life is a joint venture between kotak mahindra bank and south africabased old mutual public ltd co old mutual holds 26 stake the maximum limit permissible its life insurance venture which is ranked ninth in terms of new business premium income is expected to see a boost in income with the proposed merger with the bengalurubased ing vysya bank we are likely to complete all our approval processes by the first quarter of 201516 and will start operations by the second quarter said gaurang shah presidentasset management insurance international business kotak mahindra bank the general insurer will focus on motor and health insurance and aim to grab about 05 per cent market share in five years the industry is expected to grow at a cagr of 15 to rs 180 lakh crore by 2020 balasubramanian said the company is expected to hire 250300 people for the business general insurance companies usually take lesser time to break even than life insurance companies the penetration of nonlife insurance is 08 of the gross domestic product giving huge opportunities for general insurance companies to grow there are 27 nonlife insurance companies but the industry is still dominated by the four public sector companies new india assurance national india oriental and united india insurance company which have a market share of more than 50 liberty videocon general and magma hdi general were the last to enter the nonlife insurance industry in 201213 birla has entered into a partnership with south african mmi holding to foray into health insurance