Trends in General Insurance

A lot is happening in the general insurance space and Mr. Sanjeev Mantri shares his views,

In the Union Budget 2017, the Government has focused on an inclusive agenda with increased allocation towards schemes like PMFBY. What’s your take?

The Union Budget rightly focuses on pursuing an inclusive and long term development of the economy. It targets the key building blocks i.e. infrastructure, digitisation and rural development among others. While pushing for growth is important, it is equally essential that we maintain a balance through risk mitigation. The introduction of schemes such as Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana rightly aligns with this thought process. By increasing the budgetary allocation to ₹13,240 for coverage under this scheme and thereby extending its coverage from 30 per cent to 40 per cent in FY 2018, policy makers are ensuring that growth is well protected by adequate risk management measures in place.

‘Wellness’ is a theme that your company has been very vocal about. Could you share details?

Conventionally, non-life insurance as a sector is perceived to play a role only in case of an untoward incident, with focus on settling claims efficiently. At ICICI Lombard, we believe that we would rather play a more proactive role and adopt the principle of ‘prevention is better than cure’. We have been developing our insurance solutions accordingly and have introduced innovative and relevant ‘Wellness’ benefits in our health insurance covers. Today, we offer benefits such as Gym & Yoga reimbursements, nutrition consultation, sports & fitness therapy to encourage and handhold our customers in their quest to stay healthy.

Further, we have introduced innovative open access platforms such as ‘Health Advisor’, which empower consumers to benefit from peer opinion pertaining to quality of treatment at hospitals. We also provide detailed information on the infrastructure and cost of treatment at specific healthcare providers through our website http://www.healthadvisor.icicilombard.com.

What technology initiatives are being taken by ICICI Lombard currently?

We were the first in the industry to introduce the online channel way back in 2005 and have been the pioneers in offering technology enabled insurance solutions since then. We have developed a suite of innovative, tech driven solutions for our customers that can be accessed from anywhere, at anytime. Most recently, we have unveiled a completely new, mobile first website that offers end to end solutions to our customers.

We have also launched a unique solution for our customers which enable hassle-free renewal of lapsed motor insurance policies. Traditionally, when a motor insurance policy expires, a mandatory inspection is required to be done by a surveyor which is time consuming. With our ‘Mobile Self Inspection’ feature, customers can conduct the vehicle survey themselves by uploading a self-inspected video on ICICI Lombard’s ‘Insure’ app. The video is reviewed by ICICI Lombard’s underwriting team. Once approved (within a few hours), the customer can pay online and the policy is renewed.

Another unique feature that we introduced sometime back is to allow customers to receive a renewal quote by simply sending a picture of their existing policy (from any insurer) through ICICI Lombard’s ‘Insure’ app. On receipt, a quote is sent within a few minutes with details of the insured and vehicle pre-populated. The customer can accept the quote or modify the proposal as required and then pay through the app for instant policy issuance.