Page 11 - The Insurance Times March 2025

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ment for which regulators may (or may
1st phase of Bima Sugam likely to be rolled out mid- not) permit certain relaxations for the
2025 limited purpose of the testing.
The first phase of Bima Sugam - an ambitious project of the insurance regu- Further, regulations on maintenance of
lator to create an Amazon-like one-stop digital platform for buying, selling, information by the regulated entities
and servicing insurance policies - is expected to be rolled out in the mid of and sharing of information too have
this year instead of April announced earlier, a source privy to the develop- been consolidated by the regulator.
ment said.
The regulation mandates electronic
In June of 2024, the IRDAI chairman Debasish Panda had said that the first record-keeping with robust security
phase of the project will be launched in April 2025. and privacy measures, and requires
The idea, initially proposed by the insurance regulator in 2022, has missed regulated entities to adopt data gov-
several projected launch dates, including January 2023, June 2024, August ernance framework and implement
2024, and April 2025. board-approved policies for record
maintenance.
Often hailed as the UPI moment for the insurance industry, Bima Sugam is
going to be a public digital infrastructure, keeping the policyholder at the It also sets guidelines for sharing con-
fidential information; and mandates
core to offer an end-to-end journey of the lifecycle of the product and be-
data to be held in data centres located
yond.
and maintained in India only.
The platform's aim is to democratize insurance in India, potentially becom-
IRDAI also notified IRDAI (Meetings)
ing the first of its kind globally.
Amendment Regulations, 2025; IRDAI
(Insurance Advisory Committee)
IRDAI widens scope of be issued through a master circular, (Amendment) Regulations, 2025; and
Insurance Regulatory and Develop- IRDAI (Re-Insurance Advisory Commit-
sandbox framework to ment Authority of India (IRDAI) said in tee) (Amendment) Regulations, 2025.
fuel innovation a statement.
IRDAI has expanded the scope of regu- "A notable addition is an enabling pro- Insurers in breach of
latory sandbox framework to encour- vision to file Inter-Regulatory Sandbox guidelines on expenses of
age proposals that foster innovation, proposals, cutting across more than
improve efficiency and ease of doing one financial sector," the regulator management face curbs
business. said. IRDAI recently directed insurers found

The IRDAI (Regulatory Sandbox) Regu- Regulatory sandbox usually refers to to be in breach of its expenses of man-
lations, 2025 is now more of principle- live testing of new products or services agement (EoM) guidelines to submit a
based whereby operational aspects will in a controlled/test regulatory environ- glide path for compliance while facing

10 March 2025 The Insurance Times