General Insurance Council launches, Faayde Ki Baat, a nationwide insurance awareness campaign
Chennai: In a bid to increase awareness and adoption of non-life insurance, the General Insurance Council (GIC), the apex body of general insurers, with support from the Insurance Regulatory Authority of India (IRDAI) today launched an awareness and education campaign, ‘Faayde Ki Baat’. All 25 General Insurance, 6 SAHI (Standalone Health Insurance) and 2 Specialized Insurance companies in India, along with 11 Reinsurers have come together in a joint effort to raise awareness and educate the people of the country about the importance of non-life insurance. Under this campaign, GI Council aims to increase awareness about General Insurance and at the same time educate people on how to safeguard themselves and their assets especially their health, home and motor vehicle.
The campaign titled, ‘Faayde Ki Baat’ is in line with the current focus area for GI Council to spread awareness amongst consumers on the importance of non-life insurance as a risk management instrument. Over the past 2 decades, the non-life industry has grown at a CAGR of about 17% and the industry premiums are expected to be ~Rs 200,000 crore for the year ended March 2020, up from about Rs 10,000 crore in 2000-01. Though the penetration in this period has increased from about 0.5% of GDP (in 2000) to ~1% of GDP (presently), this is far below the Asian penetration of 1.85% and global penetration of 2.8% to GDP. These numbers are indicative of the sizable opportunity with respect to all segments of non-life insurance products. However, Personal Line of Insurance such as Home, Health and Motor Vehicle Insurance, both Third Party Liability & Own Damage are focus areas for this campaign.
As per IRDAI’s last published data, only about 4.2 crore individuals have a retail health policy. India’s health spends are under 4% of GDP compared to global average of ~10%. At the same time, out-of-pocket spends are ~65% compared to global average of ~18%. On motor, about 50% of the vehicle population on road is uninsured. The home insurance penetration is very low. The share of Indian non-life insurance premium to global premium is at about 1.1% and India is ranked 15th in global non-life insurance markets. The objective of Faayde Ki Baat campaign is to address the two key areas for improving the penetration of non-life insurance in the country which are Awareness and Education.
The campaign was launched by Mr. AV Girija Kumar, Chairman, GI Council. Speaking at the launch event, Mr. AV Girija Kumar, said, “The main function of insurance is to provide protection against probable chances of loss. However, the non-life industry is faced with a situation where there is still some gap between consumers’ awareness and understanding of benefits of General Insurance products and their expectations from it. It is therefore our endeavor to bridge this gap amongst consumers’ for the industry, stemming from which is the objective of the campaign to spread awareness on non-life insurance products and why one should have them.”
“Each individual’s approach to saving for times of an emergency will be different, but our aim is to educate the citizens of India to understand that some sort of insurance coverage such as Health, Home or Motor apart from many other insurance coverage, is a critical part of a responsible financial plan,” adds Mr. AV Girija Kumar, Chairman, GI Council.