Impact of COVID on Indian Insurance Industry Need to Be Risk Ready

There is a continuous presence of uncertainty since COVID from late 2019. The people globally witnessed unprecedented deaths, economic volatility due to forced lockdown, loss of jobs resulting in a rise in unemployment adversely impacting gross domestic product of most nations.

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Introduction

There is a continuous presence of uncertainty since COVID from late 2019. The people globally witnessed unprecedented deaths, economic volatility due to forced lockdown, loss of jobs resulting in a rise in unemployment adversely impacting gross domestic product of most nations. The two years of 2020 and 2021 saw dissolving many business models where they had to change the business and start afresh. The lockdown resulted in an increase in online culture.

Just when scientists overpowered the COVID, the Ukraine-Russia war started in February 2022. This led to a rise in global inflation, shortage in food supply, deglobalization, and adverse impact on the already stressed environment. The rise in inflation caused most of the central banks to increase interest rates, making it difficult for home seekers and raising capital for new businesses.

The further conflict of Isreal and Hamas in October 2023 continued level of high inflation, increase in crude oil price further worsening of global economy, rise in geo-political risk, volatile stock market.

The high degree of uncertainty requires a proper risk management plan to steer the business out of the woods. The purpose of the article is to analyze the current prevailing risks and look back to the risks that are already crystalized, take the lessons and prepare for the future. There are only two ways to manage risk, either you plan to manage risk or do crisis management.

Here the example considered is the Indian insurance industry for the period of 2019-20 to 2023-24 as how COVID impacted its business parameters. And whether it serves as a warning signal for the future risks resulting from tariff war, climate risk or some unprecedented new risks that we are currently not aware of.