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IRDAI Chairman Debasish Panda said that the insurance industry needs three times the number of current agency force to meet the growing demand for insurance among people.
Panda was speaking at the Business Standard's BFSI Insight Summit held recently in Mumbai.
Currently, the insurance industry has close to 30.27 lakh individual agents. A rough calculation says that the industry needs close to 1 crore agents to meet its target of insurance for all by 2047.
Panda also said that Bima Sugam, a platform for agents to sell insurance and service policyholders will empower agents and transform access to insurance.
Last month, Panda said the Bima Trinity will strengthen people's trust in insurance and make insurance more affordable. While Bima Vahaks are the distributors who can sell insurance policies by doing KYC and facilitating claim servicing on a digital platform Bima Sugam, Bima Vistaar offers simple products policies having comprehensive features like both health and life cover.
The Chairperson also said that the IRDAI is revamping the Insurance Information Bureau (IIB) to provide insurers with advanced data analytics capabilities. This aims to help personalized pricing, risk assessment, fraud prevention, and improved claim management.