Context

As per the latest update Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to form a steering committee, which will act as the apex decision making body for creation of its ambitious ‘Bima Sugam platform’.

About the Platform:

• ‘Bima Sugam’ will enable individuals to buy a life, health, motor or property insurance policies online.
• The platform will enable easy access under a single roof for insurance companies, agents, brokers, banks and even aggregators.
• The platform will act as a centralised database which will assist consumers with all insurance related queries.
• It will be a centralised marketplace and a one-stop-shop for all insurance-related queries, including policy purchase, claim settlement, insurance advice and grievance redressal.

Significance:

• The platform will have to demonstrate end-to-end digital on-boarding journey for all insurance products without any manual interventions, including customer acquisition and lead management, customer onboarding, application management, documentation, risk management, underwriting process, policy issuance, and customer service management, analytics and MIS and user interface.
• The platform will have an easy-to-use interface for the online users to easily access the information on the portal, help them in making a decision towards purchase of policy and also support them in servicing of the policy purchased from the platform.

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI):

• It is a statutory body formed under an Act of Parliament,e., Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act, 1999 (IRDAI Act 1999) for overall supervision and development of the Insurance sector in India.
• As per 4 of IRDAI Act, 1999, the composition of the Authority is:
  • Chairman;
  • Five whole-time members;
  • Four part-time members,
• Entities regulated by IRDAI:
  • Life Insurance Companies - Both public and private sector Companies
  • General Insurance Companies - Both public and private sector Companies. Among them, there are some standalone Health Insurance Companies which offer health Insurance policies.
  • Re-Insurance Companies
  • Agency Channel
• Intermediaries which include the following: Corporate Agents, Brokers, Third Party Administrators, Surveyors and Loss Assessors.