The Indian economy has been growing and has become one of the fast growing economies in the world. Industrial production has picked up in 2004-05 by a rebound in global trade and increased business consumer confidence. Industrial growth was across basic goods, capital goods and consumer goods. The improved performance in 'finance, insurance, real estate and business services' contributed 12.9 per cent to growth in the real GDP. The net retention ratio of the public sector insurers increased to 74.37% from the previous year's level of 72.30%. Space The four public sector had a higher retention ratio - New India 76.33% (73.86% in 2003-04); National 74.32 (73.78); United 73.79 (70.23), and Oriental 71.77 (70.11) based on the segment-wise exposure of the individual insurers, the retention ratios varied within individual segments. While the retention ratio in case of fire segment ranged between 78.12 and 66.61%, in the marine and miscellaneous segments it ranged between 55.97 to 45.63% and 77.87 to 75.02 % Respectively. The retention ratios of the new insurers have broadly varied depending upon the composition of their portfolio.