The aims of this study are to investigate the technical efficiency and productivity growth of the Indian health insurance sector and to test the conglomeration hypothesis versus the strategic focus hypothesis for providing new evidence on economies of scope. This study has analyzed the efficiency and productivity performance of the 27 health insurance companies from the period 2015 to 2019 using slack‐based measurers (SBM) of data envelopment analysis. The Malmquist index has been used to evaluate the productivity of health insurers. The Mann–Whitney test is used to investigate the conglomeration hypothesis versus the strategic focus hypothesis. Findings indicate that Indian health insurance industry experienced significant fluctuations in mean technical efficiency during the study period. Almost 30% of the health insurers operated efficiently during the study period. Almost half of the health insurers experienced growth during this period. The Indian health insurance sector grew at an annual average rate of 3.78% during our study period. We further found that the stand‐alone health insurers operated more efficiently than the health insurance units of the general insurers in the Indian health insurance sector. This study is first of its kind that brings into light the operating characteristics, efficiencies, and productivity of the Indian health insurance sector. This study will be helpful to the regulators, decision makers, and other stakeholders. The policy makers of health insurance companies can improve their efficiency after knowing the reasons of inefficiency. The managers of inefficient health insurers may expedite measures to improve efficiency by better utilization of existing resources and technological improvements.

The purpose of study was to investigate the technical efficiency of Indian life insurance companies using data envelopment analysis (DEA) to find the reasons for inefficiency. It aimed to analyze the efficiency of all the 24 life insurance companies operating in India for the period 2013-2017 using DEA based on secondary data collected from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Annual Reports. Findings indicated that the state life insurer, that is, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) was efficient throughout the entire study period. The private life insurance companies exhibited variations in their performance levels as they were comparatively new in the life insurance sector and of different sizes. Some private life insurers operated efficiently, while some private life insurers were less productive using excessive capital; on the other hand, few life insurers grew fast using technology. The methodology employed in this study estimates relative efficiencies without assuming any functional form; as a result, the proper comparison of input utilized with the output produced was not possible. The study brought into light the operating characteristics and efficiencies of all the Indian life insurance companies during the period 2013-2017 and therefore holds important insights for policy makers and practitioners as well as for the decision makers.

The purpose of this article is to investigate the technical efficiency of Indian pension funds using data envelopment analysis (DEA) and to assess the reasons of inefficiency if any. This article analyzes the efficiency performance of all the pension funds available to Indian subscribers from the year 2015–2019 using radial measurers (BCC) of DEA based on secondary data collected from the annual reports of New Pension System Trust. Findings indicate that the average efficiency of Indian pension funds was 75.38% and this sector experienced overall stability in the average efficiency levels during the study period. Almost 40% of the pension funds operated efficiently in one or more years during the study period. The minimum slack was found in the input “expense ratio.” This confirms that risk associated with investments is the cause of inefficiency and not the expense ratio in the Indian pension sector. Tobit regression is applied to explore the main drivers of efficiency in the India pension funds. The study finds that fund size has positive association with the efficiency of the pension funds. Public sector funds were more efficient than the private sector funds. This study is first of its kind that has assessed the efficiency of Indian pension funds. The study brings into light the operating characteristics and efficiencies of the Indian pension funds for the period 2015–2019 and therefore holds important insights for policy makers, practitioners, and decision‐makers.

The purpose of this article is to investigate the efficiency and productivity growth of Indian life insurance industry and to assess the effect of branch office locations on efficiency. This study has analysed the efficiency and productivity performance of all the 24 life insurance companies during the period from 2016 to 2019, using slack-based measures (SBM) of data envelopment analysis. SBM super-efficiency model is used to rank the fully efficient life insurers. Malmquist index is used to assess the productivity of life insurance companies. To assess the effect of branch office geographical locations on efficiency, double bootstrap regression has been used. The findings indicate that Indian life insurance industry experienced significant fluctuations in mean technical efficiency during the study period. Almost 50% of life insurers operated efficiently in one or more years during the study period. Only 3 out of 24 life insurers were found scale efficient. Interestingly, 50% of life insurers experienced growth during our study period. Double bootstrap regression analysis indicates that semi-urban and rural branch offices have positive effect on the efficiency of the life insurers. This study is first of its kind that has assessed the effect of branch office locations on the efficiency of life insurers. The study brings to light the operating characteristics, efficiencies and productivity of the Indian life insurance companies for the period from 2016 to 2019.

The present study aims to assess the intangible attributes of the service that have an impact on customer satisfaction. The Intangible attributes attached to the service, are difficult to determine. The Indian Railway network is one of the largest railway networks in the world. It is spread over 115,000 km having 21,617 passenger trains carrying 23 million passengers every day. In terms of revenue generation, it is a major contributor to the Indian economy but even then, the service level is very poor as compared to the other parts of the world. Due to increased competition in the modes of transportation, the Service attributes of Indian Railway acts as a strong influencer on Passenger Satisfaction. Indian Railways has a huge potential in terms of economic benefits if their service quality is improved. Various studies have tried to identify the important attributes regarding the Service Quality of Indian Railway. The SERVQUAL model provided important insights into the service attributes. The study attempts to identify the gap that exists in the service level, that is, service offered by the Indian Railway and expectation of the customers. In the study, only internal aspects like facilities (attributes) which make the journey comfortable and the absence of these attributes makes the passengers’ journey uncomfortable are included. The result indicates that there exists a considerable gap in Reliability and Assurance dimensions of Railway service quality and the most important factors determining satisfaction of passengers are basic facilities, safety and security, cleanliness and employee behaviour towards passengers.