HDFC Life Insurance to stay away from group term business

Explaining further, Padalkar said that group term has become a fairly commoditised product.

"We haven't been successful in making money there. It is because even one additional death can throw your pricing out of gear. So we have stayed away from that," Padalkar added.

As a whole, Padalkar said that while growing protection isn't difficult, making reasonable returns in protection is fairly difficult. Hence, she suggested that a calibrated approach in this segment is the focus.

An Emkay Research report said that HDFC Life is avoiding group protection plans due to the lack of profitable underwriting. The report added that this stance was because group term insurance continues to become a commoditised product, which requires fine pricing apart from effective mortality experience.

Group term insurance is a group insurance product for companies where the insurer pays for death of an individual within that group/company during the policy tenure.

Overall, when it comes to the protection business, HDFC Life has said it continues to view a long-term opportunity in the protection business in a calibrated manner, with strong medium- to long-term prospects of this business in India.

"It expects around 15-20 percent growth in the business, given a calibrated approach and strong underwriting in place," an Emkay Research report said.