Page 41 - The Insurance Times November 2025

full-fledged underwriting departments for these lines of
business with extremely knowledgeable Underwriters, who ײ ³»¼·½¿´ ײ­«®¿²½»ô ¿² »¨¬®»³»´§
were respected and knew their job quite well both from a ·²²±ª¿¬·ª» °®±¼«½¬ ©·¬¸ ¬¸» °®·²½·°´»
theoretical and applied point of view. The Clients, Agents, the
Development officers and the Divisional /Senior Divisional ´±½µ ¬¸» ½´±½µ ·­ ·² °´¿½» ©¸»®» ¬¸»
Managers relied on them heavily. Though Regional Office and °®»³·«³ º±® ¬¸» »²¬®§ ¿¹» ®»³¿·²­
the Head Office were not underwriting offices, the specialist ´±½µ»¼ ¬·´´ ¬¸» ¬·³» ¿²§ ¸±­°·¬¿´·¦¿¬·±²
underwriters used to sit in these offices and help the lower
offices in advisory capacities since these officials grew an ½´¿·³ ¸¿°°»²­ò
expertise in handling significant and complicated risks.
product landscape in the General Insurance industry of India.
Cut to modern times and especially in the private sector Though to the best of my knowledge in India, still we do not
offices, where one sees a host of Relationship Managers who sell ghost insurance or romantic break up insurance or alien
have to refer everything from a cat insurance to an aircraft abduction insurance, we sell various innovative and customer
insurance to their respective Underwriters. Virtually for any friendly products like Cyber Insurance, Climate risk Insurance,
line of business, the acceptance is based on a dedicated team Electric Vehicle Insurance, Trade Credit Insurance and various
of people known as Underwriters who are not truly kinds of unique liability insurances. "Pay as you use" products
integrated to the day to day business acceptance process by are in place, health insurance products linked to life style are
the foot soldiers. Be that as it may, the main problem lies in also available which are seamlessly enabled by telematics.
the underwriting attitude where for most of the private
companies, the scenario is either black or white without much In medical Insurance, an extremely innovative product with
of a grey area. Extremely low PML risks are gladly accepted. the principle lock the clock is in place where the premium for
the entry age remains locked till the time any hospitalization
Risks with slight complication or uniqueness fall under the claim happens. Entry of selling platforms, aggregators are
declined risk. There are some private companies with good helping in insurance distribution through online purchase, a
underwriting personnel from public sector insurance favourite of the young generation and urban professionals
companies or from some Insurance schools, who are doing a equally. Another significant change in the product landscape
fantastic job by underwriting complicated risks but the as per my reckoning has been to go for simpler policy terms
general scenario is one of accepting or rejecting without any and wordings making understanding of the terms of the policy
management of the same through various specific terms, much easier for the policy holders. Attempt to have bite sized
warranties, capping of sum insured, enhancement of products is another welcome feature in the market which will
deductibles, pre-acceptance risk inspections etc. find favour of the middle class, low middle class and rural
Unfortunately, in modern times I do not find much endeavour population. The public sector insurers seem to be reasonably
in negotiating tailor-made Re-Insurance by the mid-level confident these days about writing special contingency
private Insurers. policies which used to be a tricky proposition few decades ago.

In past, the attitude was to accept even the bad risks with I feel that for this area, the Re-insurance support is good and
restrictive conditions and boundary which is somewhat missing the underwriting capacity of the direct underwriters has also
in modern times where the underwriting that too by the gone up. The overall industry seems to have understood the
selective few are templated. There are exceptions but by and need to change the attitude from selling what it has to what
large, it seems to me that the whole general insurance the customer needs. This realization has led to the
industry of India has become risk averse. I say so completely development of add-ons and modular products which are
keeping in mind the constant onset of natural Catastrophes. quite flexible in nature. IRDAI has played a great role in
Still, we have a significantly developed Re-insurance market standardizing the health insurance and fire policies for
and alternative risk transfer methods to take care of these residential risks, MSME and SMEs. "Use and file" procedure
events. I keep telling my students that go, play and on a bad has replaced the erstwhile "file and use" procedure. In the
day lose the match but never give a walk over. product landscape, we seem to be following the old adage
that necessity is the mother of invention.
Q: Do you see a change in General Insurance product
landscape in India? Q: Your view on claims efficiency of the Insurers
A: There has been definitely a very positive change in the A: As the taste of the pudding lies in its eating, the taste of

The Insurance Times November 2025 37