The 4th annual Economic Times Insurance Summit brings together industry doyens

Mumbai, December 22, 2017: The Economic Times Insurance Summit 2017 held at The Taj Lands End, Mumbai, saw luminaries from the insurance biggies and service providers discussing various aspects. The summit created a platform for deliberations focused on how to make Insurance accessible to every Indian as envisioned by the PM of India & shed some light on the need to revive policies and regulations, in addition to analysing the impact of digital disruptions on the insurance landscape.

Beginning the conference with his views on securing financial future of India Mr. Nilesh Sathe, Member (Life), Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority said, “The insurance density of India is pretty low at $59, while the world’s insurance density is 10 times larger. Merely adopting a product that has done well for others doesn’t mean it will sell well for others, there can’t be a cookie cutter approach. The need is to better strategize. What we do today will decide where we are tomorrow, so we must find out if we are on the right track.”

Setting the tone for the day, Mr. Deepak Lamba, President – Times Strategic Solutions, said, “While we have seen an improvement in insurance penetration and density in the last years, India largely remains an under-penetrated market. There is thus a need to drive insurance coverage, without which our nation will be burdened with unprecedented costs as the population ages. The Economic Times Insurance Summit saw prominent industry experts share their insights on the path ahead for the insurance sector, helping us understand how to embrace the digital disruptions and innovations that promise to reshape our lives.”

The summit then moved on to a panel discussion moderated by Rohan Sachdev, Partner & Leader, Financial Services Advisory and Global Insurance Leader for Emerging markets, EY that focussed on allowance of Initial Public Offering in Insurance Sector, Mergers and Acquisition in the insurance sector, and to learn about new policies undertaken by the government. Talking about what the future holds, R M Vishaka, MD & CEO, Indiafirst Life Insurance said, “Looking at penetration rates today, I do believe we have a great story for the next 5 years. Look at income disparity reducing, technology proliferation, I have a huge belief in rural and sub-urban areas and with the advent of technology, I believe in the growth story that lies ahead of us.”

Highlighting the challenges KG Krishnamoorthy Rao, MD & CEO, Future Generali India insurance said, “The challenge for the non-life insurance industry has been the claim ratio, which can be put down to bad pricing. We have seen improvements in the pricing levels of smaller portfolios, so slowly the industry realised that they need to look at the claims ratio more closely”.

The summit also deliberated on the most upcoming trend in every industry, i.e. disruptive technology. Sharing his views with other panellists, Tarun Chugh, MD & CEO, Bajaj Alliance Life Insurance said, “There is a lot of experimentation being done, with disruption happening around a lot of customer-centric facets. While the environment is getting ready for it, we’re not there as yet. There’s been some movement, such as in IOT, and some cases in AI too. We’re just starting off, and there’s a lot of work to be done. The impact will come when insurance is sought to be brought more than being sold.”

Giving a truthful picture Mahesh Balasubramanian, CEO, Kotak Mahindra General Insurance Company said, “India is behind the curve, but the opportunity is enormous, but we are trying to fit solutions to fit our needs rather than having an end-to-end solution that operates on these new-age technologies. That is where the game will be changed and won.”

Noshin Kagalwalla, MD, SAS India emphasized the enormous opportunities available and shared; “We are set to have 20 billion computing devices by 2020 according to Gartner. Technologies such as AI, machine learning, IOT and blockchain opens up new opportunities for innovation and ways to do business. More data is now available for analysis and this is where the opportunity lies for companies.”

Moving on to a forum moderated by Hemant Jhajharia, PwC, India, pondered over the digital transformation and fast changing consumer behaviour. Participants, Shalabh Saxena, CEO, Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance, K Sanath Kumar, Chairman & MD, National Insurance Company, Vikas Seth, CEO, Bharti AXA Life Insurance, Anup Jindal, CEO & Joint MD, RMSI and Ashish Mehrotra, MD & CEO, Max Bupa Health Insurance agreed upon the importance of taking a full view of customer profile and managing digital engagement. Today an insurer needs to invest heavily into digital platforms.

Corporate Comm India(CCI Newswire)