Mumbai : Insurance is one of the defining factors of a developed country. An insured country & citizens will help us move decisively and irreversibly towards a developed society, says Saurabh Mishra, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance, GoI. He was speaking at the 14th Assocham Global Insurance Summit and Awards, held at Mumbai.
“Insurance is not just one of those high-ended glam black jacketed investment banking product, it is a product for each one of us. If every eligible citizen, every eligible asset is insured, I think we move decisively towards becoming a society which is a developed society from all stretch of imagination,” says Joint Secretary, “ Data should be the DNA of an insurance company from the way he drives the customer, analysing the customer. If you are able to do that, another important sign that will behave like a developed country delivering and consuming insurance.”
Addressing the summit,Thomas M Devasia, Member-Non-Life, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India said, “We are working on certain broad-based initiatives towards affordability and availability of insurance, and one of them is already in the news is the big infrastructure initiative with a social safety net product being developed by the industry and we have received some good feedback.”
In his speech,Anuj Mathur, Chairman, ASSOCHAM National Council for Insurance and MD & CEO, Canara HSBC Life Insurance Co. Ltd. Says, “India is set to become the 6th largest insurance market with an average growth of 14% over the next 10 years. We are at the cusp of becoming the 5th largest world economy and it’s a moment of pride for all of us. Today the business environment is very positive. Insurance regulator IRDAI is really focused on increasing the insurance penetration at an accelerated pace, and the year 2047 is where the government and IRDAI are aiming at insurance for all.”
“I am extremely excited to be associated with this industry at this point of time which is looking at disruption as well as inclusiveness. We are going to witness more global players with the government’s favourable FDI policy and I think things have really changed in the last 2 years for the flexibility it has shown, and investors are really looking at India as an investment destination.” He added.
BC Patnaik, MD, Life Insurance Corporation of India said, “For an insurer, data is sacrosanct and unless we have a sanctity of data, there will be mayhem across the country. India is a country which is underpenetrated and there is a lot of scope in returns in terms of absolute terms in life insurance premium itself and there is a potential to reach 10 lakh crore at any point of time. For health, we are just at the tip of the iceberg at just 1%, some days we should be reaching around 5-6%.”
G Srinivasan, Advisor, ASSOCHAM National Council for Insurance & Director, National Insurance Academy said, “There is a mission to increase insurance penetration in our country. However, insurers are still to reach a large number of people and I think we still have a long way to go to deepen the insurance penetration. I think the customer experience is still a challenge. What we really need to do is to capture the imagination and mind space of customers.”
“The next level of penetration will come from technology and data, which will really play a very important role in achieving present customer experience. Augmented reality can really help in risk inspections, loss assistance. There’s no need for people to go and assess losses. Blockchain can help in development insurance along with technology known solutions for better claims settlement and better customer experiences.” He adds.
Addressing the gathering, Sarbvir Singh, CEO, Policy Bazaar said, “We are a unique country and when you think about it, insurance is the best possible solution compared to relatively higher income countries which have social security, but for India it is the most logical and a brilliant concept. It is actually cheaper in India compared to other countries globally, may it be Health Insurance, Term Insurance or any other insurance product it is much more affordable. So, terms are cheaper in India compared to Singapore. Health insurance is an amazing product and is relatively affordable. It is completely networked till the last step. In my opinion products are not the problem. Actual problem is not awareness, the problem is action. The 30 crore, 40 crore or 50 crore population have the wallet, but still, they are not buying the volume they should have, for their own individual reasons. One of the first things that strikes you is awareness, there is always a concern that there is not enough awareness but in my opinion the awareness is only the surface, actual problem is not awareness actual problem is action. Action issue vs awareness issue. The only solution you have is to find ways to approach people in a segment of one.”
Murali Urs, SecOps Leader, ServiceNow India said, “In the insurance industry we are contributing in a very big way, we figure in the top 10 in every category of insurance but there is a great deal of risk, as all of data including Aadhar card, Pan card can be misused, and hence protection of the data is very important.”
