E-Insurance: Challenges and Opportunities in India

Insurance is a risk management tool. Although India is the second most populous nation in the world, growth of insurance sector is compromised. Regulatory authority IRDA has introduced E-insurance concept where one can store all the insurance policies in dematerialize form. It works just like demat account of securities. PM Narendra Modi has launched Digital India Programme and recently after demonetization also emphasized on Cash Less Society concept. This paper has analysed some of the challenges and prospects of E-insurance. Key challenges includes platform issues over internet, format of E-insurance, IRDA�s guidelines for insurance aggregators, chances of frauds, awareness among people and lack of trust on technology in adoption of E-insurance. Currently, most of the life insurance companies are providing only term insurance on online platform. Favourable regulatory changes for insurers like amendments in insurance laws show positive sign for growth of E-insurance. The growing internet segment and consumer behaviour in the e-commerce space clearly corroborated that there is an ever growing market for financial products and online research for insurance is converting into sales.