LIC’s focus to be on rural-centric products: Chairman
“The focus would be how to cover maximum rural masses who need insurance. In coming days, rural share will also go up to our total business kitty,” LIC chairman Siddhartha Mohanty said.
NEW DELHI: In a bid to achieve ‘Insurance For All by 2047’, LIC will play a significant role and to meet that objective it is planning to launch a product specially designed for rural areas.
“The focus would be how to cover maximum rural masses who need insurance. In coming days, the rural share will also go up to our total business kitty,” LIC chairman Siddhartha Mohanty said.
He said to achieve the objective of Insurance For All by 2047, LIC will play a significant role and in that direction, the insurer has already started working. “The regulator IRDAI has already proposed ‘Bima Vistar’, a composite product, which will consist of life, health, and property insurance,” he said.
To sell those products Bima Vahak would be engaged, he said, adding, it will be a women-centric distribution channel model.
Though India is the fifth largest economy in the world, insurance penetration is low compared to the global average. In June this year, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) came out with draft guidelines for ‘Bima Vahaks’, which seeks to establish a dedicated distribution channel at the level of Gram Panchayats.
The guidelines proposed corporate Bima Vahaks and Individual Bima Vahaks for the distribution channel. The former would target legal persons registered in accordance with the respective laws and engaged by an insurer. Individual Bima Vahak could be any individual appointed by an insurer or appointed by a corporate Bima Vahak.
Meanwhile, LIC has initiated a total digital transformation project DIVE (Digital Innovation and Value Enhancement), and appointed a consultant to steer the project.