As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread, it has far-reaching effects on individual lives, businesses, and economies worldwide. Governments worldwide are looking for innovative measures to curb the virus and mitigate its disruptive impacts. Similarly, all the companies are looking to protect their people and enhance their resilience through potential responses to probable financial losses by using their insurance policies. Organizations need to work closely with their advisors and counsel to address various concerns. Against this backdrop, a Management Development Program (MDP) in the form of a webinar titled InsureTech Trends and Future Outlook with Reference to Pandemic was organized by JAIN (Deemed-to-be University), MATS Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship (MIME) on August 21, 2021.

The MDP commenced with a welcome address and initial remarks by Dr. H Muralidharan, Director at MIME. In his welcome address, he highlighted the recent trend of deploying technology in all managerial spheres, including the insurance sector, and therefore, the name insure-tech. The second-year PGDM student, Ms. Chandhini Kongara, conducted the MDP, in her role as master of ceremonies. The webinar took place in the form of a panel discussion with a provision for questions and answers. The panelists included Mr. Prashanth Vellanki and Mr. Anirudh Bansal. Mr. Prashanth Vellanki is a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and a Principal Consultant at ProLead, one of the leading financial advisory firms. Mr. Anirudh Bansal is an energetic and driven professional with more than ten years of actuarial experience in non-life insurance and employee benefit. He is an Actuary and Founder at InsurTech & Faculty of Actuaries.

The panelists highlighted the importance of customer convenience given busy lifestyles and work schedules. In this context, the technological innovations are helping to improve the customer experience by replacing the conventional practices of going to an insurance broker, understanding the positives and negatives of a policy, and then finally buying an insurance policy by interacting with various screens on a single platform. In addition, the technology is helping in the processes of record-keeping and insurance claim settlements. Mr. Anirudh Bansal said, “Update or perish.” Since these latest technology tools are new to the industry and such advanced technology is expensive, it will take a little more time (around three years) for a country like India to adapt to it. The panelists discussed the probable application of technology and its trends and prospects concerning different types of insurance instruments; term plans, endowment plans, and vehicle insurance plans. The interesting dimension of the discussion was the evolving variations in the insurance policies which are based on usage patterns, behavior, and habits, history, etc. of the insured, such as rash driving, kilometers driven, lifestyle, etc. Mr. Prashanth Vellanki said, “The prana of the insurance will be technology."

The panel discussion followed an equally interactive question and answer session, which witnessed extensive participation from the audience. The panelists were highly appreciative of such webinars, which are futuristic. The webinar ended with the formal proposal of a vote of thanks by second-year PGDM student Ms. Preeti Rani Saho. Given the COVID 19 protocols, the panel discussion took place in a blended mode; both online and offline. The audience included practicing managers, in addition to students, faculty members, and staff of MIME.