All-in-one policy plan to spread insurance in India

IRDA is devising an affordable product covering health, life, property, accident risks to give citizens protection, expedite claim settlements by linking death registries onto one industry platform

If India’s insurance regulator’s plans fructify, households across the country could soon be able to get an affordable single policy that covers health, life, property and accident, get their claims settled within hours, and even secure value-added services such as gym or yoga memberships at the time of buying a policy.

In an ambitious bid to expand the poor insurance penetration in the country, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) is devising a new affordable bundled product to give citizens protection against multiple risks, and seeking to expedite claim settlements by linking death registries onto a common industry platform.

These initiatives are part of a broader overhaul, including legislative amendments to attract more investments through differentiated licences for niche players similar to the banking sector, with an eye on making insurance “available, affordable and accessible” to citizens with a ‘Gram Sabha- to district- to State-level’ approach. The regulator believes these changes could double the number of jobs in the sector to 1.2 crore.

Flagging “huge protection gaps” that exist “even today in almost all the lines of the insurance, be it life, health, motor, property or crops,” IRDA chief Debasish Panda said on Thursday that they are striving to create an “UPI-like moment” in insurance through a plan worked out with general and life insurance firms that he termed “Bima Trinity”.

A new Bima Sugam platform will integrate insurers and distributors on to one platform to make it a one-stop shop for customers, who at a later stage can pursue service requests and settlement of claims through the same portal.

The regulator is simultaneously developing a possible lynchpin product Bima Vistar that will be a bundled risk cover for life, health, property and casualties or accidents, with defined benefits for each risk that can be paid out faster than usual without the need for surveyors.

“We are trying to design it in a manner so that there are parametric triggers which don’t need a surveyor to assess the loss. If there is a loss, the defined benefit immediately goes to the bank account of the policyholder. We are trying to price it in a manner that it is affordable,” Mr. Panda said, adding that banks can possibly be given an auto-debit authority for the premium payments.