On the scope of health insurance in the country, Jacob said although General Insurance Corporation has several schemes going, around 20 lakh customers were in their ambit, yielding an income of about Rs 200 crore a year. He said there was a significant demand for health insurance schemes in the country, and if the market were to grow 50 per cent every year, it would mean an income of Rs 675 crore by 2000. And the coverage might go up to 50- 70 lakhs in the next two to three years, depending on the products offered.

Royal and SunAlliance,which had signed a memorandum of understanding with DCM Shriram Consolidated in 1994, hopes to get a licence for entering the insurance sector. Jacob said Royal and SunAlliance was one of the few companies to have initially opened a liasion office in the country. The fact, he said, would go in his company's favour, adding the Chinese government accorded a lot of weightage to the date of opening of a liaison office.