Optima Insurance Brokers Pvt. Ltd.

Indian Insurance Regulator is planning to launch a bundled product that will cover life, health, casualty, and property insurance in a single policy at a reasonable price. This product is being developed along with the General Insurance Council and Life Insurance Council of India.

The product design focus is to develop a parametric trigger, so that there is no need for a surveyor or assessor for loss assessment. If loss occurs or happens, the defined benefit should immediately go to the bank account of the policyholder.

The Bima ‘Trinity’ will include a digital platform, Bima Sugam; a comprehensive cover for the rural population, Bima Vistaar; and a women-centric distribution channel to reach untapped/ rural areas, Bima Vahak with a benefit-based parametric structure.

It was emphasized that Bima Sugam will be the protocol or the platform and Bima Vistar is a product to make insurance accessible to the common man. This bundled product of life, health, casualty, and property will bring out the synergy benefits of Insurance.

The Indian surety insurance market is set to witness a higher growth path as India’s Insurance regulator, IRDAI relaxes norms for surety bonds to increase the availability of such products.

IRDAI has reduced the solvency requirements applicable for surety insurance contracts from 1.875 times to 1.5 times now as per the changes made to the Surety Insurance Contracts guidelines with effect from 15th May 2023. Significantly, the exposure ceiling of 30% has been removed as applicable to each contract underwritten by an insurer.

These changes are in addition to the removal of the cap on premiums underwritten in a financial year for surety insurance business by mono-line insurers.

The reforms in surety Insurance bonds will increase contractors’ liquidity and give an impetus to the infrastructure sector, in particular.

The General Insurance Council of India is planning to partner with hospitals for facilitating cashless claims settlement for non-life insurance companies. This platform will bring ease of doing business for hospitals to tie up with insurers and put a halt to the leakages in the healthcare sector by bringing transparency.

This platform will address long standing demand of the healthcare industry, having to deal with 30 insurance companies on a standalone basis. This platform is designed to help detect frauds, and eliminate waste and abuse, bringing down the cost for non-life insurance companies.
The objective of this platform is to increase the share of cashless claims to about 100% from 55% currently, contributing to the growth of health insurance industry in India. This platform will also help to identify the errant hospitals and initiate corrective actions.

Later this year, India is planning to host its first state-sponsored global insurance summit. The summit intends to turn the global spotlight on Indian insurers and highlight the challenges of industry and attract business investments. This comes in the backdrop of India’s insurance regulator recently launching ‘Insurance for all by 2047’ mission and revealing many measures to increase growth in the sector. By 2027, the Indian insurance market is expected to touch US $ 200 billion. The Indian insurance market is emerging as a bright spot in midst of the developed world facing headwinds on economic front.

This conference is slated to be the world’s biggest, by bringing together global heads and top executives from large insurers, reinsurers, broking agencies, actuarial organizations and policymakers on single platform. This event is likely to leverage India’s G-20 presidency and may be planned around September, however, official confirmation is still awaited. This will be an excellent opportunity for India’s insurance sector to seek investments in rapidly growing market with huge potential to increase insurance penetration. During FY21, India’s insurance penetration was 4.2%, with life insurance penetration at 3.2% and non-life insurance penetration at 1.0%.