Kolkata, Jul 16 (IANS): After registering a 21.95 per cent growth in gross direct premium underwritten in the first quarter of current fiscal, the general insurance industry is expecting to maintain its growth momentum in 2017-18, a top official of a public sector insurer said here on Saturday.

"The first quarter has been good for the general insurance industry and we are confident that going forward, we would be able to maintain the growth momentum this year," National Insurance Co. Ltd's Chairman and Managing Director K. Sanath Kumar said.

"The industry believes that a 20 per cent growth can be sustainable even in the coming years," he said.

Kumar said digitisation of database of insurance companies, linking of insurance policies with common identifiers such as Aadhaar, vehicle registration number, etc., would be attributed to the growth momentum.

According to him, the focus of the central government on crop insurance and growing flow of household savings into financial assets would contribute to the growth.

As many as 30 non-life insurers have posted a gross direct premium of Rs 33,302.89 crore in the first three months of the current fiscal as compared to Rs 27,309.59 crore in the same period last year, according to a provisional data compiled by the Insurance Regulatory Authority of India (IRDAI).

Public general insurers have the market share of 50.64 per cent, while the private players have 49.36 per cent.