Irda earmarks Rs 20 crore for awareness drive

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda) is planning to join hands with the Ministry of Consumer Affairs to spread awareness on insurance and has earmarked Rs 20 crore for the campaign.

Speaking on the sidelines of a seminar held here today, Irda Chairman J Hari Narayan said one of the biggest challenges for the industry was to spread awareness and make the industry more transparent.

The regulator said it was in the final stages of designing disclosure norms for insurers and pursuing insurance firms to implement corporate governance before April 1, 2010. It also urged the insurers to address certain structural constraints to increase penetration.

Narayan said the first step would be making the grievance system more transparent. Currently, every insurer has their own grievance system, which are robust and good. However Irda wants to put up a single system which can monitor the rest. “We are planning to create a software which would capture the grievances data of companies, which in turn will be made public.”

Last year, three lakh grievances were registered. However, the insurance ombudsman heard only 6,000 cases. Of the 6,000, 2,000 cases were passed in favour of the policyholders and the remaining one-third in favour of insurance companies.