Page 42 - Insurance Times Janaury 2021

BIMTECH. He assured that students that here future was advised insurers to set up a business continuity plan, in case
in safe hands of a knowledgeable and competent faculty. they did not have one in place, and recommended setting

Students were then addressed by Registrar Mr. K C Arora, up crisis management committees. She was of the view that
insurers needed to tackle the threats posed by 3 C's - covid,
Chief Guest for the day - Mr. Tapan Singhel, Managing
climate change, and cyber security risks effectively.
Director; CEO Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Co. Ltd., Ms.
Malti Jaiswal, Senior Consultant, World Bank; Advisor, There was 3 Panel discussions in the event attended by
National Health Agency. Noted speakers from the Insurance Industry.
Prof Manoj Kumar Pandey gave a short presentation on this 2nd BIMTECH Leadership Series Talks by Mr.
occasion about PGDM- Insurance Business Management Bhargav Das Gupta, MD, and CEO of ICICI
Programme giving details about programme structure,
Lombard General Insurance Co. Ltd on 31 st
curriculum, tie ups with international insurance bodies like
October, 2020
CII UK, Swiss Re etc. This was followed by vote of thanks to
the guest of honour by Prof Pratik Priyadarshi. As an organization If you believe in digitization, you have to
ramp it up or else you miss the bus - India is likely to have K-
October 2020
Shape recovery - Bhargav Dasgupta.
BIMTECH's 4th Insurance Colloquium -2020 Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH) held
BIMTECH INSURANCE COLLOQUIUM 2020 with the theme its 2nd session of "Leadership Talks from the Top" on the
of ''INSURANCE 4.0 Resilience in Risk Society'' was held on topic of "Reimagining Insurance Industry Post COVID19" by
a virtual platform on October 23rd, 2020. This was the Mr. Bhargav Das Gupta, visionary MD, and CEO of ICICI
fourth edition of this eagerly awaited annual event in the Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd, India largest non-
Indian Insurance industry organised by the Birla Institute of life private insurer on 31 st October 2020.
Management Technology (BIMTECH) Insurance Business Mr. Bhargav Das Gupta initiated his address by stating that
Management programme. the pandemic was the greatest human tragedy and has
The BIMTECH Insurance Colloquium 2020 saw intense and affected humanity and economy seriously The current
enriching discussions among industry captains, thought pandemic apart from affecting the health of common people
leaders and renowned experts from the insurance industry. and had significantly affected the economy. The world was
debating whether the economy would have a V-shaped
In his welcome address in the inaugural session, Dr.
sharp recovery, U Shaped time-bound recovery, or L shaped
Harivansh Chaturvedi, Director, BIMTECH articulated the flat recovery. He felt it would be a K-shaped recovery where
impact of the pandemic on economies and societies. He
some sectors of the economy would see a sharp recovery
shared that the pandemic was something the world had not
and other sectors would have a slow recovery. According to
witnessed in the last 100 years. The situation had brought him, the current pandemic was a" transformational event
the importance of public health systems in emerging and
at civilizational level". The world post-pandemic will witness
developing countries to the forefront and exposed their a change in geopolitics as well as the emergence of a new
weaknesses at the same time. world order along with technological changes. He being part
In his theme address, Mr. Sakate Khaitan, Senior Partner- of the insurance sector was interested in seeing what it did
Khaitan Legal Associates, and Member- Board of Governors- to the insurance industry.
BIMTECH reminded the august audience what the humanity Mr. Dasgupta went further and outlined the various effects
was presently going through was something unprecedented. the pandemic had on corporate and individual consumers.
He felt that the society at large had adapted to the situation Firstly, the awareness levels and need for insurance
and having a virtual colloquium was evidence of this especially for life and health insurance had increased among
adaptability. He further added, "No matter how adaptable consumers. Secondly, the expectations of the consumers in
the society was, this resilience was not possible without the the manner they consume insurance were towards receiving
psychological safety of insurance." insurance in a digitized and contactless manner. Thirdly,
Mrs. T.L Alamelu, Member (Non-Life), IRDAI in her keynote Consumers want insurers to act as trusted advisors providing
speech maintained that resilience was about anticipating, them with useful pieces of advice e.g. on the wellness aspect
reducing, and planning for risks. According to her, IRDAI had to prevent sickness. T

42 The Insurance Times, January 2021