Insurance penetration will improve if regulations are reduced: New India chief

Insurance is important for the political growth of our country, especially when there is no social security among the below poverty line (BPL) population in India, G Srinivasan, CMD, New India Assurance, said at the recent Fourth Insurers’ Conclave here.

The conclave was organised by the Asean Institute of Insurance and Risk Management at the Rizvi Institute Of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai. Srinivasan concluded that insurance penetration will improve if regulations are reduced and people are expected to bring in lesser capital.

The first panel discussion was on the role of commercial insurance, and was moderated by Haris Ansari, former member, IRDAI. He noted that the biggest problem with insurance is that it is a push product and not a pull product and that a consumer can be taken care of only if the product is properly explained to him/her, which is often not the case.

R Chandrasekaran, Secretary-General, General Insurance Council, deliberated on the performance of commercial insurance companies, while PVS Nagaraja Rao, Chief, P&GS, LIC, spoke on LIC’s roles in propagating inclusive insurance through socially-relevant insurance policies.

Yogesh Lohiya, CEO & MD, Iffco-Tokio General, highlighted the challenges in the propagation and spread of social and inclusive insurance in India and how they can be overcome.

The second session focussed on the role of alternative insurance, moderated by Liyaquat Khan, Managing Partner of Global Risk Consultant and a former long serving president of the Institute of Actuaries of India.

Abhijeet Chattoraj of Amity Business School, Amity University, Mumbai, one of the very few practising insurers to do a PhD on health insurance, drew a vivid graph of the decline of mutuals and cooperative forms of insurance in India post-nationalisation and post-IRDAI Act.

The second panellist, Kumar Shailabh, Executive Director, Uplift Mutuals, showed how mutuals make insurance work for the poor, while Shariq Nisar, Senior Research Fellow on Takaful or Islamic Insurance from Harvard University, explained the nuances of the concept.

The third session, on the confluence of alternative channels of insurance, was moderated by AK Roy, former CMD, General Insurance Corporation Re. He was of the view that the confluence of the alternative channels of insurance with the existing one, if brought about with supporting regulations and controlled experimentation, can speed up universal inclusive insurance.

Anil Kumar Singh, Chief Actuarial Officer, Birla Sunlife Insurance, relied upon his vast experience in the field to suggest best practices for cooperative insurance, while G Mallikarjun, General Manager, Reserve Bank of India, and former OSD, IRDAI, expertly blended his experiences of working with both the regulatory bodies to put forward succinct and practical suggestions on the the cooperative format.

Kalim Khan, Director, Rizvi Institute of Management Studies and Research, spoke about the urgent need for sustained mass education to bring about inclusive insurance.

PK Behl, former ED of LIC and Chairman of the Organising Committee of the conclave, gave the welcome address, while KC Mittal, Ex-Chairman of GIC, and RN Bhardwaj, Ex-Chairman of LIC, were felicitated for their contribution to the industry.

Arun Agarwal, India Representative of Lloyds Insurers, gave the concluding address, saying that insurance will only be inclusive when insurance mutual and cooperatives cater to the underdeveloped sections of the economy through instruments such as healthcare management.

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