 "BFSI, BFSI event, BS BFSI")
In order to create awareness about life insurance, technology has to play an important part, R Doraiswamy, managing director of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India, said.
Talking to Business Standard's Banking Editor Manojit Saha at the Business Standard BFSI Insight Summit 2023 in Mumbai, Doraiswamy said, "Awareness creation is important, especially in lower-middle-income groups. To help achieve this, there are various microinsurance schemes and group covers that can help gain more customers."
On customers benefiting from deploying technology, Doraiswamy said, "Technology has a tremendous impact on reaching more customers. Companies are focusing on digital boarding, which will help focus on improving persistence in this sector."
However, he said that people are not willing to write off the insurance premium.
On being allowed to sell health insurance policies, Doraiswamy said, "We have been in the health market for quite some time. A life insurance company in the health insurance business will have better standing in terms of data building."
He added, "If we have to reach the "insurance for all" policy, we have to look for purpose before profit. That's one area LIC has been looking at."
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Naveen Tahilyani, managing director and chief executive officer of Tata AIA Life Insurance, said that investment in capital is necessary to create awareness among people.
"We need to build awareness to make people realise that life insurance is important. In order to create demand, we need to create awareness," he said.
However, he said, a lot of people postpone buying life insurance due to the cumbersome process that exists now.
"As an industry, we have around 11,000 branches across India. However, one bank has over 11,000 branches. Hence, investment is necessary in terms of creating more centres across the country," he added.
On awareness in rural India, he said, "We need to invest to reach rural India. This can happen by focusing on expanding reach, generating reach, and deploying technology."
On being allowed to sell health insurance policies, he said, "We are allowed to do a lot with health and wellness. Health and wellness can make us an attractive industry. It can help us become a more digitally-oriented industry that can appeal to the youth."
Speaking of the Covid-19 pandemic and the outcome it had on the industry, Mahesh Balasubramanian, managing director of Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance Company, said, "This industry bore the brunt of Covid-19 pandemic. We settled over 72,000 crore worth of claims in a pandemic year, working largely from home. I don't think anybody would have envisaged business continuity plans [BCPs] of this nature, but we all stood the test of time, and everything was done digitally. I must admit that the radiator also supported us in terms of giving us the ability to be digital."
On the industry's future, Anup Bagchi, managing director and chief executive officer of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, said, "If we look at this industry, it is meeting a couple of societal needs. One is life protection because we are a country with a huge demography. Second is credit protection. Then, there's reinvestment risk and retirement planning because I believe there's no other substitute product in any other industry that meets societal needs."
"The regulator is doing a very good job of nudging us, encouraging us, and also, in a way, facilitating many of the issues. I think it's a bright future ahead for us," he added.
"We will start covering more and more people through bundled products. I am confident more people will come into the insurance net," said Vibha Padalkar, managing director and chief executive of HDFC Life Insurance.
