Page 55 - Insurance Times December 2020

Mr. Dasgupta went further and outlined the various effects for insurers. Lastly, he felt insurers need to be cautious and
the pandemic had on corporate and individual consumers. sensitive in a post covid world. This was time to cut down
Firstly, the awareness levels and need for insurance unnecessary costs and optimize resources.
especially for life and health insurance had increased among
consumers. Secondly, the expectations of the consumers in Mr. Das Gupta closed his address by saying the pandemic
the manner they consume insurance were towards receiving was a wake-up call to the entire world not only for the
insurance in a digitized and contactless manner. Thirdly, insurance sector. This was a time to move from shareholder
Consumers want insurers to act as trusted advisors providing capitalism to stakeholder capitalism. Shareholders were
them with useful pieces of advice e.g. on the wellness aspect important for any organization but good organizations would
to prevent sickness. Fourthly, new product constructs were look at the interests of all stakeholders including consumers,
involving with changed expectations of customers like employees, and society at large, and take all positive actions
customers seeking OPD (Out Patient) cover, reimbursement for the society as well apart from only looking at enhancing
of expenses for pharmacy and diagnostic bills apart from the shareholder wealth in a post covid world.
traditional IPD (In-Patient) cover in health insurance. Fifthly, Thereafter, the floor was opened for the Q & A session with
the Indian consumers were willing to share their data with
the health insurers provided the insurer provided him Prof. Dr. Abhijit K. Chattoraj, Chartered Insurer& Professor
appropriate wellness solutions in return. Sixthly, he felt that &Chairperson-PGDM-Insurance Business Management
the demand for retail cyber risk coverage products would Programme acting as a moderator. The Q & A session had
increase due to a large workforce working from home and active participations from the audience all over the world
the organizations would want them to take home insurance putting their questions which were answered by Mr. Dasgupta.
cover as they carried corporate assets with them while To a pointed query by the moderator as to which role among
working from home. Lastly, he felt for corporate customers the various roles assumed by him like a leading banker ,life
the post covid scenario, had made them look at non-damage insurer and finally the general insurer ,he likes the most,
Business Interruption covers which were not offered in India. Mr Dasgupta candidly maintained that his first love remains
The SME sector could opt for pandemic risk covers in the banking as this was his first job. "The fact that I stayed
future. There was a need to build pandemic risk pools to with Non -life insurance for close to eleven years is a
build resilience in this sector.
testimony to my liking about general insurance .All I can say
As far as impact on insurers was concerned he enumerated is that it is very fascinating to work with general insurance
trends and imperative actions to be pursued by insurers in industry as there is so much to learn. I can remind your
a post covid world. Firstly, all organizations including insurers students that within the BFSI sector, general insurance offers
needed to be more digitized, connected, and agile due to the engineering graduates in particular, the opportunity to
the emergence of a new work-from-home workforce. leverage their technological knowledge to a great extent"
Organizations have to transform internal processes to meet Quipped Mr. Dasgupta.
the challenges of this new environment. Secondly,
digitization did not mean selling policies digitally but "We started preparation way ahead of other companies
encompassed having a digital approach right from sourcing looking at the Europe experience. Even before the lockdown,
policies to settling claims digitally to survive and grow in this we had many things in place and also started equipping our
new environment. Thirdly, he felt all customers will not employees digitally. We already had digital platform to
make use of digital channels for buying insurance but a few. source policies. 90 % policies in customised SME segment
As many customers still like the interaction with a Bank/ were issued digitally. We settled all claims on virtual
Broker/Agent who offers them advice before purchase. platforms. As an organization If you believe in digitization,
you have to ramp it up or else you miss the bus" Elaborated
The important thing was these channels should also deliver Mr. Dasgupta to an another question on digital preparation
the product using digital processes. A hybrid channel posed by Prof.Chattoraj.
approach of reaching out to customers would work best for
insurers. Technologies like IoT (Internet of things), The event concluded with a vote of thanks proposed to all
Telematics, and RPA (Robotic Process Automation) were involved in the successful conduct of the event by Prof. Pratik
leading to increasing better risk management capabilities Priyadarshi.

The Insurance Times, December 2020