Go Beyond Life, Health Policies

Product innovation will gain traction as the industry gets set to go on a digital overdrive

- Aprajita Sharma

Product innovations and the urge to protect families in case of eventualities arising out of Covid-19 drove people to buy insurance in 2020. Most life and health insurance products saw demand directly coming in from customers.

But the fact is the insurance industry was already on the innovation drive pre-Covid. Just in January, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) had approved a number of sandbox products targeted at making insurance cost-effective and more relevant for customers. “Some of the products that gained significant traction include Edelweiss General Insurance’s Edelweiss SWITCH, Bharti AXA General Insurance's Pay-As-YouDrive, ICICI PruLife Insurance Outpatient Health cover and Go Digit General Insurance Network-based Accidental Insurance for Rented Motor Vehicle,” says Vaidyanathan Ramani, Head, Product and Innovation, Policybazaar.com.

Single owner-multiple vehicles product from ICICI Lombard General Insurance was another popular one. Amid the lockdown, as people refrained from driving, sandbox products, including Pay As You Use and Pay How You Use made a timely entry. Sandbox products are those with features not permitted under the existing regulatory framework. IRDAI had put a limit of 10,000 customers or ₹50-lakh premium on such products. Now that the limits have been met, insurers are awaiting clarity from the regulator on how to take these products forward, says Sanjay Datta, Chief of Underwriting, Reinsurance and Claims, ICICI Lombard General Insurance.