Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) has been appointed as the legal counsel for the project. Responsibilities of CAM will include incorporation of Section 8 not-for-profit company which will  be the company owning the Bima Sugam platform

The platform will support all personal and commercial/business insurance requirements and support in identifying and comparing optimal products to meet user requirements within stipulated timelines and would enable the intermediaries including agents to provide services to policyholders with no additional cost/investment for the agents/distribution partners

Mumbai/Hyderabad:

Insurance regulator IRDAI is now set a new deadline of July 2024 for its game changing Bima Sugam project to go live and has for the first time unveiled the entire spectrum of services to be provided by this mega tech project, which 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.   

The IRDAI has kickstarted the processes for the final implementation of the project and will soon appoint a project consultant for which Request for Proposal (RFP) has already been issued.

The regulator has formed a steering committee, which will act as the apex decision making body for creation of Bima Sugam platform.

The steering committee is comprised of:  Rakesh Joshi, member, Finance and Investment, IRDAI, Anup Bagchi, MD & CEO ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Naveen Tahilyani, MD & CEO, Tata AIA Life Insurance, Mahesh Balasubramanian, MD & CEO, Kotak Life Insurance, Nilesh Garg, MD & CEO, Tata AIG General Insurance, Prasun Sikdar, MD& CEO, Manipal Cigna Health Insurance, Inderjeet Singh, secretary general, General Insurance Council, Satyendra Nath Bhattacharya, secretary general, Life Insurance Council.

Further, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) has been appointed as the legal counsel for the project. Responsibilities of CAM will include incorporation of Section 8 not-for-profit company which will  be the company owning the Bima Sugam platform.

The platform will support all personal and commercial/business insurance requirements and support in identifying and comparing optimal products to meet user requirements within stipulated timelines.

 The entire spectrum of insurance offerings through the platform will include. life insurance and all its variants – Term plans, Savings (Par and Non-Par), Annuity and Pension plans,. ULIP Products, Health Insurance and all its variants, Vehicle Insurance (TP and OD), Travel Insurance,  Personal Accident insurance, Property Insurance, Commercial Insurance, Marine Insurance, Agricultural insurance and any other insurance product planned to be listed on the platform as decided by the two councils.

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, Customer service management, Analytics and MIS and User Interface

This digital platform would also enable the intermediaries including agents to provide services to policyholders with no additional cost/investment for the agents/distribution partners.

It is envisaged that the platform would universalise and democratise the insurance sector and enable other players to provide value by integrating such as integration with banks / NPCI, etc.

Bima Sugam will enable individuals to buy a life, health, motor or property etc. insurance policy online. It will translate to easy access under a single roof for insurance companies, agents, brokers, banks and even aggregators.

The platform would act as a centralised database that will assist consumers with all insurance related queries. It will also pave the way for a speedy acceptance of new/sandbox products.

The platform  will facilitate insurance entities to access the validated and authentic data from various touch points on a real-time basis. It will also provide  a Reference Interface / architecture for the intermediaries to provide services to policyholders.

Through Bima Sugam, IRDAI will have better industry insights on various aspects such as number of lives covered etc. which would help regulator in policy making and supervision.

The platform will ensure minimization instances of fraud and mis-selling, which will lead to enhanced customer satisfaction.

Project consultant

The project consultant will be responsible for end-to-end ideation, design and development of the Bima Sugam platform. The platform will have an easy-to-use interface for the online users to easily access the information on the portal and help them in making a decision towards purchase of policy and also help them in servicing of the policy purchased from the platform.

The consultant will also identify and appoint other experts as required during the course of the project (Technology specialists, payment service providers, etc.). The consultant will help create the technology framework, broad architecture and specify the key ideal technological parameters of the Bima Sugam platform like OS, Database, Network Infrastructure, Security, API, front end and back-end infrastructure etc. keeping in mind the purpose and scale of the Platform.

It will be also responsible for formalising the framework for aggregation of the data of all the insurance companies who will be part of Bima Sugam from a product perspective as well as risk perspective such that the ultimate aim of Bima Sugam of providing all information under one roof is successfully executed.

The stakeholders which are involved in creation of the platform are life Insurers companies, general Insurance companies, Standalone Health Insurance companies, IRDAI, Life Insurance Council, General Insurance Council and other stakeholders which might be identified in due course of creation of the platform.