Insurance coverage for population and economic enterprises needs to double in five years: IRDAI chief

Insurance coverage for India's population and economic enterprises needs to increase from 15% to 30% over the next five years, Ajay Seth, Chairperson of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), said at the SAMVAAD Summit on Thursday (October 15).

Seth said the insurance sector needs to develop its approach from the mindset of the end user.

He also said policyholders must follow three principles: “Know your product, know your insurer, know your regulator.”

On the proposed Personal Identifiable Information (PII) framework, Seth said it would take time for the framework to become operational.

He said a public insurance registry is expected by January 2028. The regulator has also sought comments on the consultation paper, he said.

Nandan Nilekani on Account Aggregator ecosystem

Speaking at the SAMVAAD Summit, Nandan Nilekani highlighted the scope for expanding the Account Aggregator (AA)

ecosystem, saying it needs to grow from reaching 20% of adults to 50%.

Nilekani said Aadhaar records around 9 crore authentications a day, with 95% of adults enrolled. UPI processes around 75 crore transactions a day and reaches 45-50% of adults, while the Account Aggregator ecosystem records around 10 lakh consents a day and reaches 20% of adults, he said.

“The beauty of AA system is the multiple usage of data,” Nilekani said, adding that the ecosystem can go beyond lending and beyond the banked population.

He said Account Aggregators currently reach mostly salaried individuals and need to expand to street vendors, gig workers and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Nilekani said the AA ecosystem has multiple use cases.