Page 47 - Insurance Times March 2024

an integral part of school curriculums. Insurers, the women centric distribution channel. Bima Vaahaks will
regulator and industry bodies need to work on nationwide educate women about the benefits of comprehensive
insurance awareness campaigns, akin to the mutual fund insurance, particularly Bima Vistara.
industry, these efforts need to be consistent, long term, with
a commitment from all industry stakeholders. Embracing Digitization
India has ranked in last place of the 29 sample countries 9
Many government run schemes such as PM Jeevan Jyoti and
of 10 years in the 2010-2020 period, based on a 2023 report
Suraksha Bima Yojana for accident and life cover respectively
by Swiss Re. India's insurance regulatory authority has
are affordable simple, yet essential covers. Yet, the uptake
initiated several regulatory changes recently to raise the
on these covers has been sluggish as awareness is low. CSC
digitalisation in insurance. Digitalisation is critical to close
2.0 - Customer services Centres were introduced as part of
the protection gap in insurance, creating operational
Digital India initiative to enhance financial awareness across
efficiencies for insurers through better underwriting, data
the country. Currently 5.78 lac CSC exist in India or which
control and reduced costs of distribution. Increased
4.6 lac are in rural areas. (CSC.gov.in Sep 2023 data).
efficiencies allow for finer pricing, which in turn improves
However, premium collection through this channel has been
affordability and hence drives increased uptake of insurance
very low because CSCs have low bandwidth to market
products.
insurance and are themselves lacking awareness of the
covers and their benefits.
The Bima Sugam initiative by IRDAI is a digital platform that
combines insurers and distributors. It would act as a single
Also, there is lack of a compelling commercial proposition
window for the policyholder to manage his/her insurance
for insurers/intermediaries to sell these and many micro
coverage. It will provide end-to-end solutions for the
insurance products. Insurance viability rests on the law of
customers' insurance purchase journey including purchase,
large numbers, hence low participation is a double whammy, servicing, and claim settlement. It will facilitate insurance
making such products unviable and hence undersold.
companies to access the validated and authentic data from
various touch points such as the nationwide death registry,
What is required is a coordinated consistent multi pronged
online aadhar verification and other India Stack EKYC utilities
effort to increase penetration, active use of social media,
on a real-time basis. The platform will be the interface for
traditional media, promotional campaigns, inclusion of
the intermediaries and agents to sell policies and provide
insurance literacy in school curriculums and digitization to
services to policyholders, among others, and reduce
enhance online distribution. Simplified CSC products need to
paperwork, thus reducing entry barriers for intermediaries,
be launched by insurance companies, covering risk of death,
providing plug and play access for onboarding clients and
long retirement, property, motor, health. Currently there is
servicing them.
lack of communication between Insurance companies and
CSCs leading to awareness gaps. Upskilling VLEs, designing
attractive incentive schemes and focus on employing more
women would help broad base the service offering of the
CSCs to increase penetration of insurance.

IRDAI initiative of Bima Vistara and Bima Vaahak will help
to build on awareness levels. Bima Vistara is a
comprehensive bundled policy that covers life, health,
property, and accidental death. It has defined benefits for
each risk category and is designed for quick claim payouts
without involvement of surveyors. Its simplicity and bundling
of multiple risks in a single product is a step in the right
direction, to facilitate ease of marketing and distribution.

Bima Vaahak is an initiative at Gram Panchayat level for a

42 March 2024 The Insurance Times