GS Analyst
Daily Current Affairs

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) is developing an affordable single policy that covers health, life, property, and accident risks in order to safeguard residents and speed up claim settlements by merging death records onto a single industry platform.

What is the need for an affordable single insurance policy in India?

• Simplified Coverage: Instead of managing multiple policies and premiums, a comprehensive policy streamlines the insurance process and offers ease of administration.
• Cost Efficiency: Combining various insurance coverages into a single policy can lead to cost savings for individuals.
• Comprehensive Protection: A single insurance policy covering health, life, property, and accident risks ensures comprehensive protection for individuals.
• Flexibility and Customization: An affordable single insurance policy can be designed to allow individuals to customize coverage based on their specific needs.
• Enhanced Risk Mitigation: By integrating different types of risks under a single policy, individuals can benefit from a more comprehensive risk mitigation strategy.
• Increased Insurance Penetration: An affordable single insurance policy that covers multiple risks can encourage higher insurance penetration.
  
  

What are the IRDA plans to compensate the protection gaps through the initiative?

• Bima Trinity: The IRDA is striving to create an "UPI-like moment" in insurance through a plan called the "Bima Trinity".
• Bima Vistar: A new Bima Sugam platform will integrate insurers and distributors on to one platform, while the regulator is developing a possible lynchpin product Bima Vistar, which will be a bundled risk cover for life, health, property and casualties or accidents.
• Bima Vaahaks (carriers): The next part of the trinity involves a women-centric workforce of Bima Vaahaks (carriers) in each Gram Sabha to convince the women heads of each household that a composite insurance product like Bima Vistar can come in handy if there is any distress.
  • With many States digitising their birth and death registries on the IRDA platform, if integrated with those registries, claims could be settled as fast as six to eight hours or a day.

Will the latest amendment benefit the residents?

• Attracting investment: These initiatives are part of a broader overhaul, including legislative amendments to attract more investments through differentiated licences for niche players similar to the banking sector.
• Increasing accessibility: It would make insurance “available, affordable and accessible” to citizens with a ‘Gram Sabha- to district- to State-level’ approach.
• Increased employment: These changes could double the number of jobs in the sector to 1.2 crore.
• Addition of value added service: The IRDA is proposing amendments to the insurance laws that will allow differentiated capital requirements for niche insurers and permit players to add value-added services to the policies they sell.
• Enable the entry of new players: The proposed amendments will also enable the entry of new players in the form of micro, regional, small, captive players, specialised players, and even composite licences, which will be able to cater to different geographies and segments of the population.

The former Supreme Court justice recently refused to recuse himself from hearing a plea by a former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer to present further evidence to support his Gujarat High Court appeal against his conviction in a 1990 custodial death case.

What is Judicial Recusal?

• Recusal is removal of oneself as a judge or policy maker in a particular matter, especially because of a conflict of interest.
• It is a basic precept that no one should be a judge in his or her own case.
• Courts must keep the promise of dispensing fair and impartial justice, and must decide controversies without bias.
• Recent Example in this regard: In 2019, CJI Ranjan Gogoi refused to recuse himself for some adverse oral remarks, saying that the plea had ‘enormous potential to damage the institution’.
• Absence of statute: There is no statute laying down the minimum procedure which judges must follow in order to ensure the impartiality.

Why do judges recuse?

• Withdrawal: A judge can withdraw from a case if there is a potential conflict of interest, such as holding shares in a litigant company or having a prior or personal association with a party.
• Principle of due process of law: This practice stems from the principle of due process of law and the principle of justice must not only be done but must also be seen to be done.
• Pecuniary Interest: The Supreme Court has adopted the Restatement of the Values of Judicial Life, which forbids a judge from deciding a case involving any entity where he holds pecuniary interest unless the concerned parties have no objections.

The NITI Aayog recently released the ‘annual health index’ for the Covid year 2020-21.

Key highlights of the annual health index:

• Top Performer: The three southern states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana emerged as the top performers among the 19 'larger states' in the index.
• Low Performer: Bihar (19th), Uttar Pradesh (18th) and Madhya Pradesh (17th) are at the bottom of the list.
• Incremental Performer: Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Odisha emerged as the top three performers in 2020-21, as compared to previous index (2019-20).
• Smaller states and UT: Tripura was the best among the 'smaller states', while Delhi ranked at the bottom of the Union territories' list.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) became a net seller of US dollars in fiscal year 2023, after being a net purchaser for three consecutive years.

Key Highlights:

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) sold $25.52 billion in the spot foreign exchange market.
• The RBI sold dollars to reduce volatility in the rupee, which has been under pressure due to the Russia-Ukraine war and interest rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve.

Why did the RBI become a net seller of US dollars?

• The RBI sold the greenback to prop up the rupee, which had depreciated due to higher import bills and foreign investors pulling out money from the domestic market.
  • If not, the rupee would have depreciated to 84-85 levels against the US currency.