Page 35 - Insurance Times February 2021

catastrophes and insect/wild animal attacks. In Mumbai, the military. The Ministry of Civil Aviation has notified
pizza delivery via drones was tested in May 2014 but was the draft Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Rules, 2020
later discontinued after Mumbai Police said that the entity wherein it has said no Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) shall
hadn't sought prior permission. The Drone Federation of be operated without a third party insurance policy to cover
India (DFI), a not-for-profit industry-led body that strives to the liability that may arise on account of an accident and
build a safe and scalable unmanned aviation industry in causing death or bodily injury to any person or damage to
India, recently organized the Drone Festival of India. property.

Tata AIG General Insurance Company Limited (Tata AIG) was In India, as the drone usage being in the nascent stages,
the insurance presenter at the festival and showcased its we expect the weight of the drones in the market to be
readiness to cater to the insurance and risk management much lesser than 500 kg (may be less than 25 kg) and hence
requirements of drone manufacturers, suppliers, buyers, we may look at liability limits lower than the European
owners and operators. Drones were effectively used by the guidelines. As insurance carriers build business and
police to implement lockdowns as they have proved to be technology use cases and the necessary architecture and
efficient and beneficial for public surveillance, crowd services, they must consider not only how and where drone
monitoring and in certain areas even for delivery of technology fits into their digital roadmap, but also how the
essentials like medicines. operating model can be enhanced to deliver optimal benefits
for the business and its customers.
Drone regulations need to be tweaked by addressing
concerns of all the stakeholders. Although futuristic, the References:
digital sky platform should be further upgraded. The 1. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/
platform should be fed with back-end data to grant banking/finance/insure/hdfc-ergo-
automated permissions. Unless the data bank within the
platform is able to process the flying location and flying path, 2. https://www.newindianexpress.com/business/2020/
it would be difficult for it to grant automated permissions. aug/24/national-insurance-offers
The market for non-military unmanned aerial systems (UAS) 3. https://www.pwc.in/consulting/financial-services/
- drones - in India has been marred by restrictive policy, fintech/fintech-insights/data-on-wings-
which can stagnate this industry in its infancy. 4. https://www.geospatialworld.net/blogs/india-seeks-to-
open-new-skies-with-draft-drone-
The Indian UAS market is expected to touch $885.7 5. https://www.globalsources.com/gsol/I/Megapixel-
million, making it about 4% of the nearly $21.47 billion surveillance/a/9000000135391.htm
global market. At the same time, it accounts for 20% of
global imports of UAS, making it the fifth-largest importer 6. IRDAI Annual Report 2019-20
of drones. This indicates the presence of demand beyond 7. Newspapers & Journals

Mr. Parmod Kumar Arora, new IRDAI Member (Actuary)

Mr. Parmod Kumar Arora assumed charge as Member (Actuary) in Insurance Regulatory and
Development Authority of India on 4th January 2021.

Prior to joining IRDAI, he was Secretary (International Operations) in LIC of India. Mr. PK Arora
joined LIC in 1986 and he has 35 years of experience of working in various departments in
different capacities.
His experience includes 8 years of work in LIC’s investment department, then 2 years as Product
Actuary, 4 years as Appointed Actuary and 2.5 years as Signing Actuary in LIC International
Bahrain.
In addition, he has got marketing exposure for more than 7 years as Branch in-charge in different branches of LIC and
also worked as programmer for 2 years.
He is a Fellow Member of Institute of Actuaries of India. He is a rank holder from Punjab University in B. Com and also
a qualified Cost Accountant.
The Insurance Times, February 2021