By Vighnesh Shahane
The Covid-19 pandemic showed us the need for adequate life and health insurance more than ever. While the Economic Survey report reveals that India’s life insurance penetration is almost twice more than the emerging markets, it still continues to be a severely under-penetrated market for life insurance. As an industry, considerably more needs to be done to increase life insurance penetration in the country.
By offering innovative products that cater to the life-cycle needs of the customer, ensuring adequate life cover, creating awareness about the need for pure protection products, and fostering a digital-first approach to enhance customer satisfaction, the industry can take measures that will go a long way in driving insurance penetration in India.
The regulator has made a number of laudable announcements during this fiscal year, notably the opening of e-insurance accounts (eIA) for customers, dematerialisation of insurance policies, and setting up of the Bima Sugam portal, which will further boost growth for the sector. Implementation of these initiatives would help to deliver an ‘end-to-end’ digital journey for the customer. It would also help in creating more awareness, deepening penetration, lessening the huge protection gap that currently exists, and expanding the reach of insurers.
