Bima Sugam- The first phase of the insurance regulator’s ambitious project ‘Bima Sugam’ to create a digital platform like Amazon for buying, selling insurance policies and providing insurance related services at one place may start in December. People aware of the developments gave this information. Bima Sugam was earlier planned to be launched in the middle of the year but it has been delayed a bit.
Sources said that in the first phase of launching Bima Sugam, e-KYC module and 2 to 3 products will be introduced which will be sold on this digital platform The industry was speculating that the Bima Sugam scheme would be shelved after the retirement of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India Chairman Debashish Panda in March this year. However, sources said that this is not the case. There has been a delay in its introduction but work is still going on on it.
Ajay Seth has taken over as the new chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India for a term of three years. The Bima Sugam initiative was first proposed by the insurance regulator in 2022 but has missed several projected launch dates.
Bima Sugam will be a single-window digital platform that is expected to act as a comprehensive marketplace where customers can compare policies from various companies in the life, health and general insurance sector and buy the policy that suits them best. Additionally, it will also benefit distributors as they will be able to complete transactions at a lower cost and in less time.
Bima Sugam is being considered as the UPI for the insurance industry. It is going to be a public digital infrastructure that will offer the policyholder an end-to-end journey across the product lifecycle and beyond. The platform aims to make insurance accessible to everyone in the country. Bima Sugam is expected to be the first platform of its kind globally.
It has an authorised share capital of Rs 500 crore, with a paid-up capital of over Rs 300 crore. Bima Sugam India Federation is owned by insurance companies, each of which has invested a fixed amount for the Bima Sugam initiative. Protean eGov Technologies has been appointed as the technology partner to develop, implement, support and maintain Bima Sugam. Executive Access has been appointed as the human resources consultant to oversee the recruitment of executives for the platform. EY is providing advisory support on the project.