Page 48 - Insurance Times May 2019

The Insurance Times - Journal Partner

1st BIMTECH - FAIR International Seminar

Capitalizing on the Emerging Trends in Insurance in AFRO - ASIAN Region:

In Quest of Profitable and Sustainable Growth

B irla Institute of Management Technology millennial would dictate the growth and profitability in days

(BIMTECH) along with Federation Of Afro -Asian
to come. Insurance impacts our lives significantly looking at
The number of people touched by insurance" he quipped.
Insurers & Reinsurers (FAIR) organised a seminar
on the theme "Capitalizing on the Emerging
Trends in Insurance In Afro- Asian Region : In He also thanked BIMTECH for timely organising the seminar.
Dr Shelina Afroza, Chairman -Jiban Bima Corporation,
Quest of Profitable and Sustainable Growth" at Radisson Bangladesh felt that the theme of the seminar is very
Blue Hotel, Noida (NCR) on 23rd and 24th April, 2019. relevant for the Afro Asian region. Bangladesh has
Dr. Harivansh Chaturvedi, Director BIMTECH, in his welcome graduated as a developing country. In the context of
emerging trends, development could be reconciled with the
address highlighted the common issues in Risk
scale of Insurance industry impacted by the overall growth
Management affecting both Asia and Africa. Drawing
and development of Bangladesh. In this context, if anything
similarity as both the continents were part of colonial yoke,
falls short of the potentials viz., how to bridge up the gap
the need of insurance protection is felt even more in these
nations than the developed countries. by regulatory and legal mechanism, appropriate policy must
be seen and explored. The first panel discussion of the day
We are in the era which employs modern technologies like was "Making Life Insurance Protection Accessible to All"
Machine Learning, Insuretech, Artificial Intelligence and
Internet of Things (IOT) to solve problems. The 17 SDGs have This session was chaired by Dr. M. Mosharraf Hossain,
Member Life - Insurance Development & Regulatory
to be examined and accomplished by 2030. He signed off
Authority (IDRA) Bangladesh. The moderator for the session
by saying that in this VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex
and Ambiguous) world, steeped with risks all around - the was Prof. Manoj K Pandey of BIMTECH.
importance of insurance and risk management tools is even The panellist were Mr. Girish Kulkarni, MD and CEO, Sun
more compelling. Union Dai-Chi Life Ins. Co, Dr. Shelina Afroza, Chairman,
Jiban Bima Corporation, Bangladesh, Mr. Trevor Bull, MD
Ms. Heba Fouad, the Assistant General Secretary -FAIR
welcomed the delegates and the guests on behalf of FAIR, and CEO Aviva Life Insurance Co. India Ltd., Mr. Kapil Mehta,
Co-founder Secure Now Insurance Broker and Ms. Kalpana
and went on to introduce FAIR. She informed the audience
Sampat, COO, DHFL Pramerica Life Insurance Company.
that in 1955, the legendary leaders of that era like Nehru,
Chou En Lai, Sukarno and Nasser had the great vision of Dr. Hossain in his opening remark gave an overall view of
working formally together for the Afro Asian Cooperation. the state of the life insurance penetration & density over
The first meeting took place in 1963 and FAIR was born in Afro-Asian region. He talked about the progress made by
1964. industry in these countries in spite of having difficulties
coming from socio-economy profile.
Mr. K K Mishra, a thought leader and former Chairman cum
Managing Director of Tata AIG General Insurance Co. Ltd Prof. Manoj K Pandey, while setting the tone talked about
maintained that FAIR has been instrumental in the growth the issue of covering only a fraction of the population & also
of Insurance in Asian region since 1964. He went on to the matter of underinsurance. He invited members to talk
explain the meaning of the term Growth- which meant about this issue & identify the trends which could fill this
profitability in terms of topline or bottomline - however, a gap.
single Catastrophecan affect the insurance industry in a Mr. Girish Kulkarni talked about the social fabric of the Afro-
manner which very few people really visualise. "The Asian region as one of the factor for the less penetration

48 The Insurance Times, May 2019