Pune:

The Indian insurance industry has recovered from the negative growth caused by the caronavirus disruptions, and has already settled Covid-19 pandemic related claims worth of Rs 9000 crore, said Subhash Chandra Khuntia, Chairman, IRDAI.

The domestic general insurance industry has made Covid-19 pandemic related claim payments amounting Rs 7136 crores, while the life industry has paid such claims amounting to Rs 1242 crores till now. Also for the Corona specific products, the total claim settled so far is about Rs 700 crores, he said.

The insurance industry which had shown a negative growth, since the onset of Covid-19 pandemic in the beginning of FY 2021, has already recorded five per cent of positive growth and will further recover in days ahead, said Khuntia while addressing a seminar on the theme of “Navigating Uncertainty: Insight-Driven Innovation “ organized by National Insurance Academy, in association with Swiss Re, on Friday.

Indian insurance industry has been able to adapt to challenges posed by the pandemic and they were resilient in providing services to their policyholders without any disruption, he said..

Khuntia emphasized that the insurance companies should be involved with their policy holders not only at the time of selling an insurance policy and making claim payments, but they should be involved in overall customer engagement throughout the policy term and help their customers in prevention and  minimization of their risk.

“This will incentivise people to buy more and more insurance products,’’ said IRDAI chief..

He also talked about the usage of Data Analytics, machine learning and AI in fraud detection and control. While stressing the importance of Customer Data privacy, Khuntia added that the usage of data beyond a point of granularity should be avoided and insurers should not deny a coverage to the people on the ground, which is not under the control of the customers.

“After all the purpose of insurance is to create a large pool of resources to compensate a few at times of their adversities,’’ he said.

Khuntia highlighted that the Sandbox regulations has incentivised more and more insurance companies to come up with innovative products and services for better engagement, as the customer requirements are changing. In relation to standardized products, he said that they are not against innovation, they are the minimum benchmarks for the industry, and they shall be innovated from time to time to upgrade them by the insurance companies.

S. N. Rajeshwari, CMD, Oriental Insurance Company, emphasized that as the Insurance industry is managing huge amount of data, it can come out with more data driven products and innovation with the help of real time data, which can help in developing personalized and tailor-made products.

She said that the Machine Learning in claim registration and settlement will allow an end-to-end automation of insurance processes.

Hadi Riachi, CEO, Swiss Re India Branch said the Insurance industry sees a paradigm shift with rapid digitalisation.

Hadi Riachi, has stressed the importance of using advanced risk analytics and automation would enable insurance executives, business houses, customers and community to combat the changing risk landscape.

He said that “Incredible India” is truly a phrase that summons it all about the huge potential of India and it’s technology. Working together towards same goal can truly be incredible for the reinsurers in the market.

G. Srinivasan,director, NIA, said that today, the risks are becoming quite complex and they need innovative solutions

“ New technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Big data, Machine learning, and data analytics enable insurers in understanding the risk better and Insurance sector has to reinvent itself for the next decade. Customers are becoming more aspirational with rising expectations, and they look for products which are easy to buy and get serviced promptly.’’ he said.