Insure India

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The primary concern of most individuals is financial security. Insurance provides a sense of security, so essential to the common man. Never earlier were Indians hit so hard by the need for insurance than during the pandemic that forced many to buy both life and health insurance.

To most Indians, the term insurance still signals life and health insurance. However, insurance now touches an increasing number of facets of our life — property, house, automobiles. Even gadgets such as TV, mobiles phones are coming under the purview of insurance. The concept of insurance against cyber fraud is also gaining ground.

But despite the new products that are being offered by some companies, India is an extremely under-insured country. The Economic Survey of 2020-21 said that insurance penetration crawled from 2.71% in 2001 to 3.76% in 2019. The insurance penetration in countries such as China, Malaysia and Thailand stood at 4.30%, 4.72% and 4.99% in 2019.

In order to expand the insurance market in the country and make the sector more robust, the industry needs more life, health and property products that are cost-efficient. In other words, bring more people under the net to reduce the premiums. Insurance companies have to be prompt in settling claims faster to gain the confidence of people who trust them for decades with their hard-earned money.

Also, a large section of the population suffers from financial insecurity, but they cannot articulate the need for insurance. The insurance companies as well as the government need to make them aware of the need of insurance.

Insurance also does the economy of the country a lot of good by providing long term funds that can deployed in infrastructure projects which also generates employment. It is an important link between the micro and the macro. Our policymakers must take up the issue of insurance penetration as seriously as they took the question of financial inclusion by opening bank accounts.