Earlier, India was not that digital, how difficult it was to adapt the technology and live with it. But, now, it doesn’t take a lot of time to shift our attitude to digital India from non-digital ones. From making payments to searching for a place to go for a visit with family, everything we do is digital.
When it comes to insurance it is normal to have a personalised insurance needs, which is why various insurers provide various add-on benefits. But, it becomes really tiring process to find that company who majorly fulfil our following needs simultaneously:
- Low premiums
- Decent maturity amount
- Less exclusions
- Less documentation
- Less time taking process
For making it easy to choose an insurance plan as per your needs, Bima Sugam platform is introduced. Let’s understand everything about Bima Sugam.
What is Bima Sugam?
It is an online platform which will contain all the facilitators of the insurance industry at one place. You can buy any insurance services directly to the insurer without dealing with the intermediaries, which will save you the cost of commission to be paid to agents.
You can avail crucial insurance services like buying an insurance plan, renewal of policy, or claiming your policy. Everything could be done online through one platform only. Insurance aggregators, brokers, and agents will act as facilitators, and you, as a buyer, will be able to perform all the activities via one, i.e., Bima Sugam platform.
How to use Bima Sugam?
You just need to verify your account via Aadhaar verification and you will be able to use such a platform after the same. Verification will be done by using OTP (one time password) in your mobile number or email id linked with your Aadhar card. Such an account will be known as an e-insurance account or dematerialised insurance account.
When can we use it?
Such a platform is not live yet. IRDA has given a green signal to start the process. You will be able to use such a platform after 1st of January 2023. You can create your e-insurance account only after the mentioned date only.
Who will be the regulatory body?
As we all know that Insurance Development Authority of India is the regulatory body of insurance in India, the same will be the regulatory body of Bima Sugam as well. However, insurance companies will be the shareholders of the platforms.
What are the benefits?
There are following benefits you, as a policyholder, can avail-
- Low premiums due to reduction in intermediary cost, i.e., commission cost.
- Comparison becomes easy, leading you to the better and unbiased choice.
- Companies will leverage the portal to get acceptance of new products.
- Market research becomes easier for companies.
- Bring transparency to the public.
Digitisation is only helping us to save our time but our costs as well. Paying commission becomes totally unproductive for us and increasing demand for the insurance is majorly leveraged by the companies by charging high premiums. Such a platform will help us in getting discounts due to commission reduction and healthy promotion of competition.
Anushka Trivedi is a freelance financial content writer. She can be reached at anushkatrivedi.com
