Page 41 - Insurance Times May 2023

MD & CEO, SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd. He
underscored the need to build trust in the
customer. This can only be done through more
'normal' conversations around insurance. He felt
that the media could be a great support in this
endeavour. "Unfortunately, most conversations
today are about tax benefits or tax exemptions or
changes in the tax regime," he observed.
Mr Devesh Srivastava, CMD, GIC Re, felt that
insurance products need to be very simple.
"Distribution is what makes or mars insurance," he
pointed out. The need is to have simple, flexible
products that can be pushed. He suggested that
products can have basic pricing that can be
enhanced through the same KYC as the customer's
purchasing power improves. "We have to start thinking in
inaugural session. Ms Jyoti Vij, Additional Director General, these terms," he said.
FICCI, proposed a vote of thanks.
Speaking about state-level insurance plans, Mr Satyajit
Session I Tripathy, CMD, United India Insurance Company Ltdobserved
that all penetration in the hinterlands is driven by
The inaugural session was followed by a panel discussion on
Government schemes. It is very advantageous for insurance
'Insurance for All', moderated by Mr Pranay Mehrotra,
companies to use the Government machinery. The
Managing Director & Senior Partner, BCG and BCG India
awareness about insurance is low in the rural areas. "People
Insurance Lead.
in cities have awakened to the need for insurance. But it
Mr Ritesh Kumar, MD & CEO, HDFC ERGO General has not percolated beyond that," he observed.
Insurance Company Ltd., highlighted some of the challenges
"The group which I come from focuses on the common
that needed to be addressed. "More than 45% of vehicles
man," said Mr Manoj Kumar Jain, MD, Shriram Life
on the road do not have third party insurance," he said. He Insurance Company Ltd. "We are known for working with
drew attention to the fact that as far as health insurance is the common man, and our premium is one fourth of the
concerned, the top and bottom segments of the population average industry premium." This showed that there is a
are well covered, but there remains the "missing middle" huge market in tier 3 and tier 4 towns. All of them require
comprising 400-500 million people. He felt that a larger insurance, although they are not in the Government's radar.
thought process needs to go into how these challenges can Mr Jain also pointed out that small town agents are very
be addressed. tech savvy and 90% of their processes are paperless, helping
them to maintain their cost ratios.
"The over awareness about retirement is that it
is important but not urgent; that segment gets
deprioritised," felt Mr Prashant Tripathy, MD &
CEO, Max Life Insurance Co. Ltd. Some other
figures that he presented were that 40% of the
people have no knowledge about savings; 90%
of the people feel that they will be healthy when
they retire; and 70% of the people believe that
retirement is 'cool'. These facts arose out of a
survey carried out by Max Life Insurance. In his
view, it is more important for insurers to work in
a coherent manner within the ecosystem rather
than merely creating clusters for products.
"If we are not able to get insurance into the
school curriculum, at least let us start the
conversion," declared Mr Mahesh Kumar Sharma,

The Insurance Times May 2023 37