Which Three Insurance Companies Are Proposed to Be Merged ?

The Ministry of Finance has revived a significant proposal to merge three public-sector general insurance companies — National Insurance Company, United India Insurance, and Oriental Insurance — into a single large PSU insurer. The government believes that consolidating these firms will help strengthen their operational scale, improve efficiency, and better tackle growing competition from private-sector insurers.

In the past few years, the three companies received a substantial capital infusion (₹17,450 crore between 2019-20 and 2021-22) to shore up their financial health. With their recent turnaround in profitability, the Finance Ministry is now reconsidering the long-pending merger plan announced in the 2018-19 Budget. This consolidation is also viewed as a step that might pave the way for partial privatisation or even an IPO in the future.