Comments
The insurance industry proved resilient during the pandemic. The non-life industry registered 12.78 per cent growth and the life insurance industry registered 10 per cent growth, said S N Rajeswari, Member (Distribution), Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India ( IRDAI).
She was delivering the inaugural address at the National Insurance Academy, Pune’s annual Insurance Summit on Thursday, on the virtual platform. The 17th in the series, the theme of the summit was ‘Quest for Collaboration: New Frontiers in Closing the Insurance Protection Gap’.
Rajeswari said the pandemic has resulted in people losing jobs, moving to different places for a livelihood and even children being forced to quit education to earn a livelihood. She insisted on the need for a coming together of all stakeholders to provide insurance coverage to the people living at the bottom of the pyramid, where bread winning is the priority, with simple and cost-efficient products.
Talking about the health protection gap, she said out of pocket expenses (OOP), higher cost of treatment, and communicable and lifestyle diseases are the major contributors. Technology can be a great enabler in quick settlement of claims, checking fraudulent claims, and providing end-to-end solutions to insurance customers, she said.
Though the intensity and frequency of natural calamities have increased manifold, only 10 per cent of the total losses are covered, NIA Director G Srinivasan said. He added that only 5 per cent of people in India have home insurance, 12 per cent have health insurance and only very few have cyber insurance cover. A large number of 3 crore MSMEs are under-insured and 90 per cent of the Indian working population is in the unorganised sector and, therefore, life insurance, health insurance, and pension are very critical for them, he said.
G Srinivasan highlighted the need to address the insurance protection gap and the urgent need to plug the increasing uninsured economic losses and loss of lives, as they adversely affect the economic growth of the country.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.