India To Allow Up To 74 Per Cent Foreign Ownership In Insurance Sector

By Shakir Husain NEW DELHI, Feb 2 (Bernama) -- India will allow up to 74 per cent foreign ownership of companies in the lucrative insurance sector from 49 per cent permitted at present. The government will amend the insurance law to increase the permissible foreign direct investment limit, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said while presenting the annual national budget in parliament on Monday. While foreign ownership and control will be allowed, the majority of an insurance company's directors and key management persons would have to be resident Indians, with at least 50 per cent of directors being independent. Among other key proposals, the 2021-22 budget raised the healthcare sector allocation by 137 per cent to about US$30.6 billion in view of the coronavirus pandemic, with an amount of about US$4.8 billion allocated for Covid-19 vaccination. The country's defence sector received a total of US$65.4 billion in the new budget. Excluding the allocation for pensions, the new military budget is US$49.5 billion. The amount includes the military's modernisation and infrastructure development expenditure of about US$18.5 billion, representing an increase of 18.75 per cent over the allocation made in the current financial year ending March 31. -- BERNAMA