General Accident Insurance has already held a few insurance agents' meets in Mumbai, where it has a liaison office, as a run-up to its entry into the market. It plans to hold the first such meeting outside Mumbai in Pune on September 5, the response to which will decide its plans to hold more such meets.

The aim in holding agents' meets is to impart professional expertise to these agents who, incidentally, are existing agents of the nationalised undertakings. The meet will allow the company to explain the opportunities they can avail of once the sector is liberalised. The aim is to professionalise the industry, teach theagents how to sell insurance products and make the buying of such products easier. The opening up of the sector is expected to create more jobs and the effort appears to be in allaying fears in the minds of the public sector giants that jobs would not be lost once private companies enter the fray.

General Accident, which in India will focus on the non-life segment, has entered overseas markets usually as a branch operation or as a wholly-owned subsidiary, though it has taken a "substantial" minority stake in some countries.

The general insurance sector, which in India is estimated to be growing at about 6 per cent per annum, could grow faster once it is opened up.