India has 22 officially recognized languages and hundreds of dialects.
According to IRDAI data, the insurance agent licensing exam is now offered in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Malayalam, Punjabi and Oriya — because regulators themselves recognize that English is not the working language of most agents in the field.
In 2024 alone, more than 13 lakh new POSP and traditional insurance agents obtained their IRDA certificate. The vast majority of that growth came from tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
Tier 2 and tier 3 cities recorded a 21% year-on-year increase in hiring, significantly outpacing metro markets.