The Insure India 2047 Plan May Need a Few Strategic Adjustments

Its goal of full coverage is worthy, but insurance is a push product that requires a special approach

- G.N.BAJPAI

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has embraced a laudable and ambitious goal of spreading the canopy of insurance cover over every insurable head, including risks to property. Its Insure India programme rightly lays emphasis on the insurance industry's three pillars: customers, providers and distributors. The processes it outlines aim to deliver the right products to the right customers, while enabling regulatory redesign, promoting innovation and ensuring a robust grievance redressal mechanism.

The sector's regulator aims to achieve its objective of complete coverage by 2047 through the insurance trinity of Bima Sugam, Vistar and Vahak.

Bima Sugam is a one-stop digital marketplace for the seamless sale and purchase of insurance. Bima Vistar is a comprehensive policy incorporating life, health, property and accident cover, with defined benefits for each category of risk to ensure quick settlement of claims without validation by third-parties (like surveyors). Bima Vahak is a proposed women-centric network of distributors at the Gram Sabha level. The role of a 'bima vahak' or distributor will be to educate and convince women in particular about the benefits of comprehensive insurance.