Draft proposal on Bima Sugam e-marketplace for insurance

Context- The Insurance Regulatory and Development government (IRDAI) has recently released  an exposure draft proposal for an insurance electronic marketplace called Bima Sugam.

Key Highlights

• Not-For-Profit Structure: Bima Sugam will perform as a not-for-profit company under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013.
• Multi-Stakeholder Ownership: The shareholding of Bima Sugam will be extensively held among life, general, and health insurers.
  • No single entity could be holding a controlling stake. This ensures a balanced and collaborative method towards selection-making and operations.
• Regulatory Oversight: IRDAI will play an important role in overseeing Bima Sugam’s governance and operations.
  • The government will nominate contributors to the company company’s board and offer prior popularity of the appointment of the Chairperson & CEO.
• Risk Management: Bima Sugam will establish a dedicated chance management committee to pick out and mitigate diverse risks associated with its operations.
• Consent-Based Architecture: The platform will perform on a consent-primarily based architecture, ensuring that customers have managed over their facts and interactions in the market, thereby enhancing trust and privacy.
• Free Services for Consumers: Consumers will not be charged for availing offerings through Bima Sugam, making coverage services and products greater available to people across diverse socio-economic backgrounds.

Bima Trinity

• Bima Trinity is a 3-pronged method through the important government of India to increase coverage penetration.
• It’s an initiative by the IRDAI to increase  the three As: availability, affordability, and accessibility of coverage products to a larger population.
• Bima Trinity is made up of 3 additives:
  • Bima Sugam: A digital portal that integrates distributors and insurers into a single platform
  • Bima Vistaar: An all-in-one insurance product that gives complete insurance coverage at lower priced costs
  • Bima Vahak: A women-led subject distribution force

Bima Sugam

• About

• • It is an internet platform in which customers can pick an appropriate scheme from a couple of options given by various companies.
  • All insurance requirements, including the ones for life, health, and popular insurance (which include motor and travel) will be met by Bima Sugam.
  • This platform will assist in the settlement of claims, whether it is fitness coverage or dying claims, in a paperless manner on the premise of coverage numbers.

Steps taken by IRDA

• IRDAI has appointed a committee for the introduction of the platform.
• It now plans to go for requests for proposals quickly to appoint a provider provider for the platform.
• The provider companies will be the technological partners for growing and running a platform to provide all of the services in a single place.

Benefits of Bima Sugam

• Single window for the policyholder

• • • The proposed platform could act as a single window for the policyholder to manage his/her insurance coverage.
    • It will offer stop-to-quit answers for customers’ coverage wishes i.e., purchase, carrier, and settlement in a continuing manner.

• Empowerment of customers

• • • Currently, there are masses of coverage schemes in the lifestyles and non-life sectors.
    • Customers have no concept who is supplying the fine deal and the professionals and cons of various schemes.
    • Bima Sugam will enable them to become aware of a suitable scheme for the customers in a single platform.

• Benefits for coverage organizations and intermediaries

• • • It will facilitate insurance companies to get right of entry to the proven and true data from various touch factors on an actual-time basis.
    • The platform will interface for the intermediaries and agents to promote rules and provide offerings to policyholders, amongst others, and decrease paperwork.

• Universalise and democratise insurance

• • IRDAI says Bima Sugam is an electronic marketplace protocol which could universalise and democratise coverage.
  • This protocol may be linked with India Stack that is a set of APIs (utility programming interface) that allows governments, organizations, startups, and many others. To utilise the particular virtual infrastructure to enable seamless transport of services.

Will the physical mode depart?

• Customers will open an coverage account and the guidelines will be stored in this account, thus obviating the need for physical documents.
• Identifying the proper coverage, buying it, settling the claims and renewals may be streamlined in online procedure.
• The technique will be mostly on the lines of demat debts and online trading in the case of stock markets.

Insurance Regulatory and Development government of India (IRDAI)

• IRDAI is a statutory framework designed under an Act of Parliament, i.E., Insurance Regulatory and Development government Act, 1999.
• It was hooked up for universal supervision and improvement of the Insurance quarter in India.
• IRDAI’s responsibilities consist of:
  • Regulating the coverage company
  • Promoting the orderly increase  of the insurance company
  • Protecting the pursuits of policyholders

Source: The Hindu

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