Now, insurance policies too in electronic format

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Hyderabad: If you are among those, who prefer holding key documents in the digital format, here is some good news for you. Now you can buy insurance policies in digital format, as the insurance regulator on Monday launched insurance repositories, where you can store your e-policies.If you want buy an e-Policy, you need to open an e-Insurance account (eIA) with an insurance repository, which enables you to buy and store policies issued by various insurers — be it if life, non-life, health or pension. Currently, the e-Policies are available only in life insurance and would be optional.The account would be opened free of cost by any one of the five insurance repositories — NSDL Database Manage-ment, Central Insurance Repository, SHCIL Projects, Karvy Insurance Repository and CAMS Repository Services.Policyholders can also convert existing paper-based policies into the digital format.After inaugurating the repositories on Monday, finance minister P. Chidambaram asked the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority to make digitisation compulsory for both life and non-life insurance policies, within a timeframe.Explaining the importance of digitisation, the finance minister recalled the problems that people faced during the recent Uttarakhand floods after they lost policy documents, despite the government’s efforts to accommodate them.