Religare Enterprises, India's leading financial services group, has entered into a non-binding agreement with Swiss Re, the world's second largest insurer, to form a health insurance joint venture (JV) company in India.

Under the arrangement, Swiss Re would provide actuarial, risk management and underwriting expertise in the venture, while Religare would offer distribution space through its financial services business.

However, both partners declined to give information regarding the structure of the JV. The firm intends to invest around Rs 500 crore during its initial phase.

Market analysts believe that the newly formed JV firm will compete with two recently launched insurance firms, Apollo-DKV and Max-BUPA, who are targeting the fast growing health insurance market in India.

The new venture is expected to be operational by 2010.