mumbai the aditya birla group is in advanced talks with south african momentum group as part of its plans to enter indias fastgrowing health insurance market the momentum group is the whollyowned subsidiary of momentum holdings the thirdlargest life insurer in south africa ajay srinivasan chief executive for financial services at the aditya birla group confirmed the developmentwe are in discussions with them momentum group he said the company is in the process of finalising the joint venture agreement a person aware of the development said it will shortly file for an r1 licence with the insurance regulatory and development authority irda the first of three steps in the registration process the indian conglomerate led by billionaire kumar mangalam birla will hold a 74 per cent stake in the proposed venture while momentum will hold the remaining 26 per cent the maximum permissible under the current law although this is in the process of being raised to 49 per cent talks have been on between the two sides for more than three months mumbaiheadquartered av birla group is present in the life insurance segment through a joint venture with canadas sun life birla sun life sells a range of life insurance products including unitlinked and traditional products other large global health insurers such as south africas discovery and usbased aetna and humana have been scouting for local partners to enter indias health insurance market which is estimated to grow by 25 per cent in the next five years the rs 12606crore domestic health insurance business accounts for about a quarter of the total nonlife insurance business in the country penetration of the insurance industry has grown at a steady pace since nonstate companies were allowed in 2000 penetration defined as the ratio of insurance premiums to gdp was 271 per cent at the time it rose to 4 per cent at the end of march 2012 nonlife insurance penetration was 060078 per cent over the past decade despite health insurance growing at a 30 per cent compounded annual rate over the past seven years the latest entrant into the segment is cigna ttk a joint venture between usbased cigna and indias ttk group which started operations this month apollo munich max bupa star health allied insurance and religare are the other standalone companies in the sector all standalone health insurance companies focus mainly on the urban market which is seeing growth through hospitals clinics and doctors the amendment to the insurance bill has been cleared by the lok sabha but is yet to be approved by the rajya sabha apart from raising the foreign direct investment limit to 49 per cent from 26 per cent the bill proposes that health insurance companies maintain an equity capital of rs 50 crore