Telangana embraces E-Vahan Bima

Telangana is the first State in the country to legally accept the digital electronic motor insurance policies by police and transport departments with the launch of e- Vahan Bima, which has been unveiled by Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDI), E-Vahan Bima is an electronic motor insurance policy issued in digital form with Quick Response (QR) code to scan for verification of policy details.

It also featured with an SMS- based verification which was also installed. It can be stored and accessed on smart phones to make the process of verification easier for commuters as well as police.

IRDAI hopes that e-Vahan will be implemented across all States by 2017. Insurance is statutory requirement under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, under which a third-party motor insurance is mandatory for all plying vehicles.

Third-Party insurances ensure coverage to life or property of a third-party by an insured vehicle. A comprehensive motor policy also comprise own damage cover that insures vehicles against theft or damage.

In India, most of vehicles are uninsured. A recent study conducted by Insurance Bureau of India (IIB) and the insurance industry reveals that about 45-55% of vehicles have defaulted on this crucial aspect.

In fact, insurance policies are fabricated and traffic authorities have no other way to verify policy details, e-Vahan Bima protects from fraudulent insurance policies, as insurance repository maintains data of polices electronically for insures and opens electronically for insurers and opens e-insurance accounts for policyholders.

In future, the car owners may find difficult in getting away without car insurance, as the new policies will come equipped with a quick response (QR) code that will help the authorities authenticate the policy immediately. QR code is a type of bar code that contains information about the motor insurance policy.

So, as soon as the traffic police scan the QR code, all the details of the policy will emerge, and it will help the official verify the policy. IRDI made it mandatory that all motor policies issued on or after December 1, 2015 shall essentially contain QR Code.

All policies now need to have a QR code to enable verification process easily and this will increase compliance and increase penetration of motor insurance and ensures a stop to the black money.

In fact, insures have been advised to help existing policy holders to get electronic policies with QR code by revising their policies both in physical and electronic format. For the policyholders, with e-Vahan Bima there is added advantage of cost saving.

However, cost saving may not translate into lower third-party insurance premiums as the premiums are tariff and decided by the regulator ever year. But the own damage component of motor insurance policy is decided by the insurer and as insurers save on costs, some of that savings may pass on to you.

Recognizing the importance of e-Vahan Bima, Telangana government decided to accept digital motor insurance policy, now Telangana is issuing digitally, all motor policies, new and renewals.

In Telangana the soft copy of the policies on smart phones is sufficient as evidence of insurance and traffic authorities can verify the details using QR code scanner and all the traffic personnel are being provided with QR readers through their phones.

However, it is advised to keep a side a printed copy of the policy to avoid outage of battery of Smart Phones, as it will have QR code for verification. IRDI is also contemplating to have a mobile app to give the policy details online by assigning a unique code to each insurance policy along with QR code.

The mobile app also helps to get a digital policy through e-insurance accounts that lets policy holder to store all the policies electronically under a single electronic account.

Today, the biggest advantage of e-insurance accounts is that policyholders can be easily contacted as all of their data is stored electronically. Also, insurers in this case don’t have to send the physical policy documents.

In order to encourage the policyholder to open an e-insurance account for the purpose of digitizing their motor insurance policy, the insurance regulator has waived off the know-your-customer (KYC) requirement at the time of opening an e-insurance account.

However, as Telangana is the only state to have accepted the digital motor policy so far, those in other states will still need to carry a print out of their policy as the traffic cop may insist on a physical document as a digital policy won’t be applicable.