Here are more items from the wish list for a dream insurance cyber marketplace
Dematerialisation revolutionised securities investment in India. It will be so much easier to apply it to insurance as a product which is customer-specific and not tradeable. Under very specific conditions, it is transferable in a limited way, as in the case of a motor vehicle being sold.
The e-insurance accounts concept was introduced almost a decade ago by IRDAI, but it never caught on.
It is possible that multiple service points was one dampener. Offering dematerialisation of insurance policies along with all other services on one platform will just make this happen.
It was in the news recently that physical insurance policies were being insisted upon as proof even where e-insurance policies had been issued during the pandemic. Such anomalies will vanish when a regulator-backed Internet resource holds and authenticates policies for stakeholders or service providers who need them, and linked to the Digilocker to boot.
Explore auto-renewal
We all intend to renew our policies, but lose track. One way to bridge the gap is the auto-renewal option on the website that deducts an on-account payment on the due date. Technology is widely used for fixed deposits and e-subscriptions. Insurance renewal may be different, but not that much. Life and annuity policies require only a periodic instalment premium payment; most health and motor covers are renewed on exactly the same terms year after year. Rarely does anyone review and revise, much as that is desirable. Indian insurance law requires that premium be paid before the insurer is at risk and that isn’t going to change in a hurry.
The facility of advance or deposit premium has been available for inland transit cover for goods, for example.
A premium deposit takes care of insurance of ongoing despatches and is adjusted against periodical or consignment-wise declarations of the nature of goods, quantity etc.
Need for app
To take insurance to the masses, a companion app for Bima Sugam is a basic requisite. People below a certain age don’t transact anything except on smartphones and they are the most desirable target audience. The app can be an umbilical cord through which information, tips, notification for renewals etc. can constantly be drip-fed to the customer. Text or multimedia, or payment mechanism, it is all there in a compact gadget that awaits the ultimate insurance app!
(The writer is a business journalist specialising in insurance & corporate history)
