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everyone I am Ravi Gupta I am a CEO and founder of list echeveria average limited we publish a magazine called BFS I the banking and finance post for the last seven years and besides of that we have been publishing a magazine called a governance another magazine on health and another managing for digital learning for 16 years and we work in the field of innovations and ideas so our aim of this webinar is to discuss about the impact of kovat 19 on the insurance industry and how the insurance industry is dealing with it and what are the emerging challenges and opportunities for this industry we have an eminent panel here a milimeter set of professionals and experts of this industry are with us we are honored to have them here I welcome and thanks for joining and I welcome all the audience who are joined us here on this platform so I will request each of the panelists to introduce about themselves and with their organizations for two to three minutes each so that the audience has a context about the organization's of the experts so Meir Express so then a fish then pin speak I'm thank you good afternoon everybody thanks for inviting me and risk officer on life insurance and it's a life insurance company which is on the transformation information security I have the functions so it's a daily Christ to deal with the government situation thank you so never joining may request and they shall pay me Deepu completing the goose wings Thank You Ravi good often everybody my name is Dee foo and I had operations and customer service Bajaj Alliance General Insurance Company Limited oh wait 19 has remarkable change in many ways and as we all know is a global phenomenon I think from a servicing perspective you know digital capabilities have really come to the fore and we will receive extremely good feedback from our customers and from our partners and on the overall front you know like just like everybody else you know we keeping our fingers crossed and you know hoping that you know the virus comes to an end quickly look if I were to a good discussion today great thank you for joining with us may I request co-founder and CEO of totalement over here a five year old organization we are in the business of creating technology for insurance distribution we have fine India for instance of about 1,200 employees 120 cities and we offer technology to channel partners over 76,000 general partners who use platform to distribute insurance I have spent 18 years in the insurance industry so I don't my career with I sell much and what we are seeing here is unprecedented I have not seen or experienced or would have never been prepared for what we are facing right now but as we are experiencing this we also see several silver linings businesses evolved and there was amazing opportunities to create new value going forward I look forward to the discussion today fantastic may I be serving system hi doctor and good afternoon everybody thank you for inviting me it's a pleasure to be here my name is amar Joshi and I with SBI general insurance as chief business officer it's a ten year old company promoted by State Bank of India in the current scenario I think it's been more than five weeks now so we have passed discussion on problems and challenges and we're extremely busy discovering great opportunities in the new normal only thing that we are Communism top is the fact that our employees taken care of and their safety and their family's well-being is of paramount importance having protected that we are past problems as I mentioned and excited about the new normal and the new opportunities which are coming up in front of us excited about the next 45 minutes thank you fantastic number thank you may I request our speaker this is single please introduce yourself insurance so I see a fair sprinkle of guys from the general insurance side in this seminar and I couple of banks and a foreign partner and stronghold in Japan the interesting part that we are seeing in the scenario is that when I see a risk officer yeah when we see have a risk management committee we never to really take it seriously they say you know Albany disaster management sigh how do we work in this scenario it looked like something that we didn't get it believe it and this office and suddenly becomes a business like this and we try and scale up and you know try and meet up in a scenario but the most interesting part is we are largely driven by you know first April business was kind of line there for the industry as such so it will have smoother because some numbers rolled in on the first day of the year and you know it by the time 2050 that first April are taking shape back cell but as we move forward you know may is something that we are also wondering we see some amount of businesses going down the good part that we see is that you know working on a home seems to be becoming a reality as and today so you know with these thoughts I go back to doctor have you looked editing this forward thank you so much mr. Singh for your inputs and introduction and your comments about the chief risk officer are very interesting because that's the most important person in any organization today so we will start this panel with the discussion on the challenges of the situation and in the second round we will ask about the opportunity get discuss about how we come out of the challenges so I like we also like discussing other disruptions how this whole situation and disrupted the industry itself so may I request soon there do the pitch talk about challenges and disruptions yeah so is stop being a chief risk officer but test pushin it is now that people take you more seriously otherwise this pandemic was the risks and we did imagine which realize it in the risk dashboard but yes wasn't considered so safe we all thought be TV is great and it's best to have to disaster recovery centers in the country for case in point in my cup if you have it in back Laura fire but that's about it nobody thought that the situation of trains being closed buses be closed post offices not functioning courier not functioning you know nobody no one thought of this kind of a scenario I mean I can go back to y2k days here mm bug that was a time when these things for thought through lives forward buildings what lies for work and things like that and we gone through it detail and we had done large simulations all these things after that here in 2000 and then but never unfolded because it was sort of a scan the business community considered there nothing happened preparations were great so from 2000 to 2010 10 20 nobody thought such a scenario will unfold and especially when you were handed out of your office those last few days and I was saying Karuna que se bottom any clue of his bunker oh and that's the time given to you to plan so there's no planning it'sit's actually so we are supposed to work in emergency mode right from day one or zero day there's no nobody thought this would come and so we had several challenges on the infrastructure as I said transport is a big issue and somebody goes by auto rickshaw is fine yes to pH Alana 1250 so the branches again are tough now of course the red amber and green zones are there in green zones you are allowed to work because insurance is an essential service but even when it was an essential service some of my employees in BM 727 offices some of the man challenges to reach two branches because police would not let him let them go facility being put on the car and said go go back you not allowed then he shows the card is like nothing nothing closed closed so that kind of scenario soda so 127 odd branches view manage to open only three hundred and sixty or sixty-five right now because you have to continuously wash red amber green zones and accordingly plan our operations so that's the major challenging salad of course at the economy and stock market which is beyond of your control jobs are crashing people are taking care of their essentials and in a new go and call them and base tell tell him or her pay the premium the get lost I don't know organize bread and butter and bhaji atrocity and you come here and I believe that there is a 30-day moratorium given by a regulator some of the 30 days let me manage to survive first so that's the kind of reactions you get and infrastructure as such and the government and economy is in a state of shock stock markets again are you all the time we have this investments that we do life insurance especially unlike general insurance lot of money of customers money or savings that we missed and we see that suddenly dwindling there is a fair market value depreciation that you need to take care of that could bring down your capital like crazy so Lindsey calculations and insurance company we keep solvency of 150% well others might have 100 he's supposed to have 150 but that should it's both in 200 right now for our company but with all the volatility of stock market you don't know ready to lend what would happen so it's a continuous watch every minute you will keep that ton of the stock market then opposed the macro challenges of banking especially you can see that there is a contraction in the economy have seen fit they rated I do person today there was some prediction for - what person so with that kind of Sinope you worried and especially on the credit side I keep watching the investments where do we were where we put up the money portfolios we have to bear the loss and some portfolios like link customer buys the loss but insurance is by and large non linked and so you would have especially a traditional company so then a lot of constant watch on the portfolios and stock market so we believe again the country itself will have a problem because the physical deficit will go to 6 percent probably highest ever and then you would have rating issues with Moody's and we are operating hope that the ratings don't go to subpar or sub grade something we spend great the country's leading but on all this I am very very hopeful as some speaker said about the people of this country degrade resilient as a community and I'm sure will fight back I remember when when when the bomb blast happened next day people who are up and running in print trains Mumbai face I had seen that and so given that kind of a scenario I hope he bounced back quickly the only shoes the numbers the incremental rate of Corona is doesn't seem to be going flattered and that's the worrisome once it gets flattened we are up and running again back in action of course with several several safety issues especially employee safety as a stakeholder we need to take care of each and every employee the permissions are now given on the basis that as an employer you are responsible for your employee safety some somebody gets Khurana you're responsible so you'll have to really ensure distancing sanitization that one screaming only two people in the length of four people in the left so employers a stakeholder is also important of course I have forgotten the most important stakeholder customer so customers have somebody whom they are reaching out to telling them that are you safe and sending messages and asking them to not only worried about pocket your money safe with us and something that I shouldn't you must reach out the primary most stakeholder which is customer paid claims and them you started getting Co bit clips and we're paying them on time quickly so that the claim we seen as a responsive industry you can say Karuna coffees burned a mob Kathleen may bring it so clay must be read very quickly that's the reported message to send out to customer so come out infrastructure cover government regulator somehow more challenging ah apparently means so many more information is being sought on solvency or liquidity management on state of the financials actually Linda Forex data and so regulators become savvy and then so we have to respond to regulators very quickly in for in water and several new initiatives a bit laws at the positive side so I think we will cover that I think you have to cover the challenges so challenge it is to remain in a nutshell the remains always to remain healthy serve our customers too place if continue to be profitable and all these talking that's what okay sure and that's like input sort of the context very well main request all are all of the speakers who we shall report Michael mute and I will request people to speak please on the challenges Thank You Ravi since soon they're you know very you know elaborate exploration with the challenges faced you know I'll keep it crisp I'll basically say that challenges are basically on three fronts I think like Amer said you know we are right now five weeks you know into the lockdown phase and it's right now a little difficult to visualize what life was you know five weeks back so in the first challenge you know if you go back five weeks back is that this was completely unprecedented I don't think you know any organization had a BCP you know which took coronavirus into account right so that was the first challenge you have to come up with solutions because you didn't have any precedent the second which is where you know soon there went into great detail is how do you keep the lights on right in this situation you know even as you take care of your employees you take care of your partner's take care of your customers right how do you work from home right how do you ensure that the company continues to function right it's a combination of the company functioning while being focused on everybody's safety and health so broadly I think that was the second challenge and as I said since um they're covered all the details right I'll not go more into that the third challenge is what's going to happen once this pandemic you know comes to an end because there are various NR us being played out today it's nobody knows when it is going to end there are multiple you know forecasts right was the global phenomenon and there are various factors at play right because the government is trying to balance economy and health so in that interplay right we'll have to see how it pans out some features will be more permanent welcome home like we said in big cities where people put a lot of time commuting welcome home for example we become a more you know permanent feature so we love to see how much of the new stays and how much of it you know goes back to status quo so I think that's the third challenge so I would say one which was one which happened before the crisis began in terms of this big unprecedented second is doing everything we can to you know stay alive you know during the crisis and the third is how do we manage the post Corbett world that's it very crispy explain the situation many requests to speak to the challenges yeah so unlike the respected panelists here I am I am we are not an insurance company and so our challenges are slightly more business oriented which which I one of the big challenge that we faced initially was an immediate drop in the business and we are in the business of retail and the challenge around operational and also demand created one big cash flow management as a problem for us and have and one of our first priority was to protect the organization and when I say protecting the organization I would mean protect the employees to ensure that they are safe they are working from home and also ensure that the organization is protected by way of us looking at all areas of cash flow so I mean in the startup world I mean this is another first action that probably all of us took which was reach out to all everything was open for renegotiation including real estate now when the software licenses ensuring that you tackle you tackle the contracts and protect and reduce cost as much as possible on the employed front as an organization we created our employee task force to protect and guide the employees and what is to be done in case there is a positive or there are symptoms and and how do you ensure that you go and get infected by it so ensuring practicing social distancing from day one very fortunate as a company that we have had only one case or 1,300 and that person has been treated and is out and so far everybody else's has been fine the third challenge was actually moving to a work from home model
where to introduce the NHS assume that everyone would have a home Wi-Fi and infrastructure to be able to able to get on the VC model to work but we did have was set up about 300 to 400 employees which we realized surprisingly do not have that kind of infrastructure and in a very short period of time which was fortunately many were in the Mumbai vicinity but in that short period of time as a company we had to really reach out and create that infrastructure in their homes so that they are able to go back and start working effectively so it did there was a bit of a dip in the in our back back up in the operations for about a couple of days post lockdown and but after that we bounced back and then we were 100% up and running the external challenge that we we see as a sort of community is that increasingly the the various fans are looking at more local kind of deployment so India was a very attractive destination and we were seeing interest in the inshore tech space where from European markets us markets and even from China we were seeing very high amount of interest to deploy capital in this space and any plus one of the focus areas within the FinTech space I would say that there is a bit of a pause there we don't know whether it's a it's a short pause and we are if you're going to be immediately sort of get back in action the moment of town is open which is what I you're by the way but but there is definitely a bit of uncertainty around ability to raise that kind of capital which otherwise was voiced towards being deployed in the country you know having said that we have been five like like you mentioned we have been five weeks into it so there has been our recalibration of of capital and going forward or fully there when the markets open up we start seeing or some of it coming back to us fantastic thanks for giving me the whole scenario of the situation of Mae West mr. Singh please respond on the challenges that come across but being in the general insurance industry and not maybe being one of the most should be here technology driven company we did face certain challenges you know we find that our industries a lot of contact industry when you go and visit an agent or a broker it leads to a certain amount of warmth and a lot of business conversion happens out of that sandy that without the space so what happened was when we started looking inward the positive thing that we saw or there will be sorry getting policies of customer the time certain orders came from the idea that you know grievances should be handled and it became an important thing we started connecting with a team on all India bases in Iowa the basis we found that to be a very big positive be but we would not speak to so many of us zonal managers and managers all over in their honor the aggravation we do that so maybe one put thing we see is a lot more connect the challenges that we see is that suddenly I have to get my order done I have to send data which is internal to my company to an outside statutory auditor I have to set up an mechanism of how they can or in my files my books are getting place we have to answer queries offline you know an audit or every some debate of people so the first since your challenge that we are facing is then we flow the books and you know find out where we stand on profitability the second thing we have is gentleman from operation big challenge in a initial period for us because you know suddenly we had was collapsing all over for us so we couldn't get this policies going and those I pauses were collapsing but ah a week we saw things coming steady and we were able to stabilize I think what we see that if we have to really work from home and if we invest a little more it might become a serious option but before the g i-- industry we still see that sometimes we connect with the agents and all a little weekend and maybe they were also not able to do business in april so we did see a significant downfall in the month of april of retail vision that was coming the month of mayor started else premier you know they're getting some innovative policies we are getting some larger tenders and all that so those are exciting thing the numbers might get composited but you know most businesses the first line there is very suffered in a very significant line of business for us for our industry aside so there are challenges but the challenge is not what will happen in April of May the challenge is what this future hotel if things open up and then maybe if you tell me in June everything's what about deny everything is gonna be back to normal I don't think that there are too many challenges that we see but long term we are looking at different options if we get squeezed to go back to what the different manners you know what sometimes they say there will be a backlash of that what cultures might change you know we might get some instructions on some people working from home so I think networks you know these kind of webinar opportunities for us to do training for employees on this all this has come up and you know we are learning order that is all I wanted to add on this thank you so much thank you mr. Singh thank you so much may request a Mar - please respond on the challenges page the shortest response could be all of the above time I won't do any repetition obviously the prime worry and the concern was valuing of the employees and being very agile and forth coming and frightened reaching out to the customer and saying hey we're there don't worry so I think it's an ordination we've done a phenomenal job there we have an EMT committee meeting that was immediately formed chaired by all the senior guys including our managing director and deputy CEO I think I draw a reasonable amount of satisfaction in the way organization a DCI children responded with enthusiasm and agility keeping in mind the improving and the customer at the center of course in hindsight there are many things that we could have done better but no one knew how to deal with this kind of crisis so from that point of view I think we're is my organization responded extremely fast and keeping employees at the customer at the center one or two things which I had as a challenge I think cybersecurity is an is a challenge because you are opening up your accessories using VPN risk officer friend is nodding I can see that concern I can see the formation yes that's an added challenge there are people who are trying to take yourself out of this situation that's an added challenge we just finished like most of us are next year planning new year planning exercise around March mid of March and then suddenly the whole plan needs completely grounds of fresh looks so that's another challenge that came up but I think in this scenario you know internally we did a good job I think the somebody spoke about regulator but I think if the larger good the way industry bodies and regulators have responded I have my appreciation for that I think it was job well done so it increased some work but I think it was for a larger code and philosophical but I think this challenges looks so small and trivial when you see on the television those daily wage workers carrying their families and working hundred kilo moles to reach the hometown I think we got no right to complain about our challenges instead of not the last line was complete success I think that's taking the all of the laundry actually that's a very important thing compared to that there is no other challenge which is big at all nothing so let's say alpha like discussing these challenges I will replace the panel to look at the what are the what is the way forward what is the silver lining in this dark clouds or or what are the emerging opportunities how can can we convert the challenges into opportunities so many requests to start with them soon there do is problem yeah yes so the silver lining is the change to the business model that we have I mean even much much two years before or three years before we we had gone on a transformation path from a traditional life insurance company to a digital edge or digitally savvy company but having said that we avoid several challenges even in that journey but now suddenly nature is forced us to be faster smarter speedier in the transformation journey I can see a 60 percent jump in the e conversions now contact ability and E conversions so what is done in the check is now done a direct credit the bank account of the customer but earlier bank accounts were not coming we either actually worse it's not K company 47% of our transactions or cash collections of premium cash collections but now things have who can gonna call it cash at this scenario I've been collecting cheque is a problem and so given that and then they're positing the check in getting stuck so given that kind of scenario that career doesn't work post office this is what the what works is he sales digital sales and therefore the digital transformation journey which we embark upon three years look theoretical now it's a brain butter how practically relevant and that's where the real opportunity is opportunity to change I know for a fact that SBI life insurance doesn't mind we'll check it has to be bank accounts and credits Bank on directly so what six seven years Baca was really surprised at that time she BAU done that and but we did change so quickly I mean of course they are the banker the banker plenty of the bank home bank which is the SBI largest bank and the reach in terms of branches so we don't have a bank so but that doesn't mean you don't need to change and be done this for instance one of the lifeblood of her life insurance companies persistency persistency means collection of renewal premiums now that was again a challenge for four years back but when he said our digital transformation we collected more and more ECS mandate from me customers so that mandate is to automatically debate the bank account with the premium collection so these are the things that help this business model change the transformative change that brings comes about now we are looking at Ballston Watsa so implementing that we talked about bots in customer election commission payment and things like that customer complaints but now they're looking at boss said what Serbs SMS beliefs and how do we work through these things so the coming of the innovative processes innovative risks well consider are well thought through and these risks are now an opportunity or an necessity of the because it takes image of stick and then accept it and wrap and then hope that the system will come back but these are of course short of the long run of course the movement to ease ki how do we work from home that's the best best opportunity of course cybersecurity is one of the biggest challenges and so it has thrown up new challenges for a information security which reposed to me or the function that is under my way in terms of how do we add security policies and security rules moment the customer logs in from the personal laptop desktop but of the employee logs it from a voicemail left laptop and a desktop or her business partners employee logs in from a personal laptop or desktop or the challenge installed you put in the secretary policies rules regulations seamlessly order even if it is not seamless in a knot in a problematic manner then I would delay undue delays and so when the problem occurred we had to scramble ourselves to order in laptops desktops the people were to carrying desktops home laptops home and things like that laptop of course is meant to be carried anyway but then I have to going out in the laptop and desktop and hope that security parameters then I have to educate my customers educate my employees not to click on mode serves not a bleep some SMS etc etc unless you're sure of it the CBI we see that you do verification calling that you make it sharper now we will run my video forensics and cyber for at six so because there is going to be a lot of morphism that will happen because there are going to be a lot of problems that would occur and then of course problem is were already grappling with is the ransomware in the malware attacks which could shut your systems for ages and then they not only that they take the data also the data gets leaked out and then it's put in the darknet and then you get several complaints later that of my credit cut has been misused and the leakage is from your organization so we worried there that's why so many hardening and security issues need to be tackled offering the other opportunity I see is for the business to transform along with digital transmission them the model changes here I think I'll leave it for other speakers to add on this time show us on that thanks for alighting the new ways of working and new opportunities may request the resistor yeah thank you sooner and Thank You Ravi one is that you know when you go back to the solutions to the challenges that we spoke about you know they were prepared and you know we believe that we are a digital company and I think our capabilities came fully to the fore you know doing the Cobra in fact there is a joke doing rounds and many whatsapp groups right who's the sponsor for digital transformation choices are number one CEO number two relevance EXO number three Cove in nineteen against the answer is fairly obvious which is why as I mentioned you know our customers and our partners have been extremely delighted by the way you know be ensure a seamless ship digital servicing so I think that's something which has really helped us you know sustain ourselves you know during this period so there was the first part of the answer Davi to the way that you post on what are the solutions you know from a challenges perspective second is going forward right what's likely to happen one which we all touched upon earlier you know work from home will become a more permanent feature it's a win-win for the employee as well as for the organization the employee doesn't have to spend time on travel you know especially in the big cities if somebody is spending one or two hours one way right you can potentially save you know two to four hours a day and even for organizations you know it's a cost saving and expensive you know real estate I think I made a very valid point on cybersecurity I think that's a new risk which is now there you know as people work on devices from home and as it normally happens rate organizations will evolve you know to meet that challenge so that is one area you know which will come sharply into focus the other is going forward in the new normal some things will change for example we're already seeing that people are becoming much more conscious of their health so you know health insurance you know the general insurance you know is expected to see a big uptick and I think that is something you know which will definitely be a focus area for a lot of people you know going forward so you know we'll have to see you know how the you know other lines of business you know play themselves out for example as I mentioned if you look at motor insurance you know the car sales have to pick up because only when cars get sold you know can insurance be provided so we'll have to wait and see you know how the situation plays itself out you know depending on whether they lock down gets lifted in a staggered manner you know depending on the location right the red and the orange in the green zones you know over the next few months cyber insurance again you know it's an area which can pick up right because as you become more digital right the need for insuring your digital assets will go up so there are opportunities will fill you know emerge right as we go through these big moments right some things will change and I think the whole idea is you know keep our eyes and ears open you know and bhi that's broadly what I know I'll say Ravi I think we have come through very well you know in this crisis in terms of being digitally right up there beat servicing our partners or customers and going forward as new segments emerge right will you know try and capitalize something indistinct thank you Depot many requests are general to reach this point on the way forward and the opportunities yeah yes I will serve I second the points mentioned earlier so I would no
repeat those points but some of the things unique to Aussies a company is that we distribute insurance through channel partners and this channel partners are or 80% of this channel partners are in tier CDE kind of cities and an our distribution would happen through a platform especially in the localized we are in mind languages in the country in you know our evolution as a company we've faced one challenge speak of in nineteen it was getting adoption because people would prefer one body people who prefer a face-to-face meeting with their customers in them sell what we are seeing a significant shift there is that our distribution partners are had now quickly adopted the platform we are seeing the some of the highest levels of adoption from a platform point of view for daily active users or monthly active user has significantly shorter the belief that you can distribute insurance by by being face to face but not necessarily actually meeting but being on video conference has started coming back in fact one of our initial key priority was the lockdown was to three skill a lot of our channel partners to use video calling facility and also we use the platform to distribute insurance and we were very happy to say that some of the very useful features which were earlier may be probably missed by a lot of our partners were sort of the Alliance by them by how the product could be very well explained and we have an algorithm that allows them to match the product to their customers requirement and how it is very easy to use the platform so there was a similar zero lining there for us so we double down our effort on that and it became easy for us because in the earlier world we would do a very offline meet-and-greet kind of an activity which would take three days for us to organize it 200 people would come together to a place and they would they would be all sort of time and effort required to being able to execute that but it's completely transformed into fully online like every day now six o'clock we have different regions carry out this what we call rescaling presentations and I am able to actually connect to at least a thousand plus partners on a daily basis which earlier was possible but probably we had not even us being a tech company also we had not even thought about it so that's that's that's phenomena that allows us to scale the platform I don't much higher level than earlier ever thought of the other advantage that we are seeing is that the appreciation of technology in being able to be quick to market so with along with the one new way in short we were we had partnered with them back in mast when in the second week of March and quickly launch of a 19 product within a timeframe of two or three days so it's now really possible to create and co-create new products go to market quickly get response and then find him the product especially given the new the sandbox architecture that the regulator's also come back come out with we have an opportunity to test technology and really go to market very very fast and via his organisation we are we believe that if we are able to enhance the scale of our channel partners by training them and by rescaling them to use a platform to distribute insurance in a much more highly productive and effective manner we would have really really taken advantage of this opportunity and scaled up our business now we are also seeing demand for Tom and health insurance it is not at the level of March but it is far higher than what we would have seen in the month of April and if I were to compare month wise the health product for March was for us was three times of that of February and in the month of April it is about sixty percent of that of March so it is not gone down to the fehb level and health continues to continues to be in demand and we are seeing we are seeing consumers wanting to buy policies term insurance is also high in demand but operational challenges are especially for high ticket size kind of policies where you require underwriting and health check-up we are finding it difficult to process those kind of cases but the zero lining for us is which is what I mean is that going forward we wouldn't have to really introduce in shorten is a concept because of low penetration we have a large opportunities especially in small cities which is where the most of our distribution partners are that's so but this it seems like that this has become a more opportunity rather than a challenge right yes may requester mr. Singh to respond on this the emerging opportunities yeah yeah so have you looked thank you I didn't of course in short that companies I think you know these are the guys who anyway telling us that this is the way forward you know there are certain companies in our industry we seem to be emerging like aku and always saying that technology should be the only a platform you know we have the shrinking of the size people work from home anyway so you know these are concepts your coming to India and you know yet are not got the 100 percent induct ability to I definitely see you see if the bandwidth which we find sometime you know the quality of conversation going down we find it disconnect and think that if it is really strengthened if I can care the same wavelength at home in punching a policy at various locations even rural places I think that you know this option is not so difficult it just needs you you know every time there is a situation which is challenging your push that this option is not available the other one becomes equally attainable further as we see to our industry we face two things that I think are paramount one is that we have to do top-line but at the same time profitability has been something that our industry has been grappling with if we keep coming up with this word cor and very few of us are able to have you know profitable cor we go 100 percent so many times because of administrative expenses and things like that you know the silver lining we see in the month of April is that our motor claims have gone down drastically you know where we don't see cars coming on road we even see health came reporting by not drastically so we see well if it is a silver lining that we see profitability has been slightly better in that so even though number the Strunk a little bit so we do see a little bit of positivity in that and this second thing we are seeing it as we are trying to strengthen the system and try and work from home and the certain protocol is being said and people are able to do that if you know it takes a little more time I think it will get strengthened so charleen that I see emerging is that some of our friends in the manufacturing sectors are really you know losing out and we might have this property premium going down drastically on the larger factories and things like that that is a tragic also a little worrisome also but retailing doesn't seem challenge because you know motor is throwing down a bit health is picking up and I think the industry will not suffer too much of gaps in numbers as such you know I had done about 170 the roads in the month of April last year and I should do a little more than that in the month of April this year so you know I have not really you know and so I have not done my target so my growth rates are taking a little more ambitious but I am still going to be in the positive or what I did last year so there is April has not been too bad May as we look into the month slightly we have to find new ways because you know we see a little bit of shrinkage in motor businesses and that's the biggest line that is going down in covert 90 we are getting a lot of premium but we don't understand you know after three six months or four months before he'll buy you liability so that's a open-ended thing to certain extent we've been writing to the council to say that you bring standardized treatment you know if you bring in let us say health treatment has to be done it has to have a fixed cost to it if those could be change the protocol would be said a lot of people have a government hospital there are lot of opportunities so I see a profitability opportunity and not the best place to be in profitability would speak off and I see also that things are going to stabilize and I think if the insurance industry is one of the lock it generally shortened industry is at least lucky I don't see they will see anything in last next couple of months very drastically going down as volume four so there is it's a stable situation we have much much better than a lot of people and you know like you know we don't have looking a salary cards we're not looking at you know pushing people are we looking at recruitment only so it is still positive there but we're a reasonably small company in the company size you know the large one they knew and they are and I see say Lombard might be some more challenges to scale up at their level but we are comfortable so you say thank you yep good to know that your APRI numbers are better than the last year numbers so this is a good sign and a positive sign and you're mentioning about the standard treatment protocols what prove it that the rates are defined it is a very very important part very request Amer who please respond on the emerging opportunities sure the from our point of view as manufacturers we call this as insurance but that's not the language for the customer for the customers the language is that I'll manage my life just in case something goes wrong help me get back on my feet as fast as possible that's customers language and from that point of view I think in our relevance has become already more I think the hold awareness of the fact that there is the risk the awareness that there is need for protection the fact that I need a plan B and the fact that nobody will now say kaymu jocosely yoga he is only going to be positive in ensuring larger protection and an all-rounded protection for anybody so I think that is a brilliant opportunity the conversation is going to become more meaningful with the person who is carrying the risk so that's a positive we have been very fortunate in terms of our business growth quality of business we had excess of 40 percent year-on-year growth last financial year one of the other great strengths of the organization has been the lob or the portfolio picks you see we are not dependent very largely on any one line of business we have a well-rounded if you see a pie chart of multiple lines of business I think time is only telling us that that was a wiser thing to do and continue to focus on a very well diversified channel mix and the line of bricks line of business so that is relearning that we need to continue to emphasis on I can only see we have more energized and more agile than ever before and you know we carry this tremendous responsibility for the title of the parent company that we carry and that makes us even more responsible towards customer towards regulatory towards compliance etc and in that scenario we have to find way to grow our business more sensibly tremendous opportunity is not of silver lining the financial inclusion the overall penetration of insurance is going to be solved in many ways I wish there was an easier way for one to learn but this is what we have so just to like add on the question like are you seeing that the company will grow this year Steve would be bigger good growth in this situation are you saying that so we are we are recalibrating our business plan we are in the process of doing that and that should happen over the next couple of weeks but we're very clear that we've identified some new growth engines we've identified what needs to be done to leverage those growth opportunities and we are working very fast on that I think as one of her friend mentioned that we where you've been praying for more face-to-face environment and then we have everything except face to face so there are some learnings we are implementing those learnings were you in pretty fast this company has been moving in excess of 30 percent and they're only here for last many years for last mini quarter's company is making underwriting profit and we have no reason to lower our own expectation from ourselves it does you doctor because of a problem so I'll take a few seconds just to fill in so that the audience has so I think I think you know though we all say it customer first and everybody has been putting on of efforts around making consumer and customer first but I think in this scenario is becoming even more relevant so everybody is wanting to retain their customer the Eagles have become more important because you know fresh business is likely and the challenge everybody is finding alternate ways of retaining what we already have in the book how do I go back to the same customer and cater to more of his need how can I be you know you know how can I be the lifetime value partner so I think the customer centricity is only growing in the industry and then I can speak for all my colleagues as well I think that's true for everybody not just for my organization so so that's a brighter thing that we care for customer even more not that we cared less when we care more now absolutely I mean read customer counts now and it these are tough times faced by customers if he doesn't join us why do we go for how do we do this I think we have time till 4:00 p.m. so we have a duty to continue the show the audience first then so much to say yes sure let's help each other yeah you know so actually I will just lead to a murder and I found something very interesting I think has any insurance company customer first is absolutely a must and you know if you don't hear that right you're going to lose people so he's absolutely got a very valid point in the whole thing I think one synopsis that we really have to care where there is an employee or a customer and they should feel that we care for him in such difficult times and a very important message that has come I mean I really appreciated that and I completely understand that you know because even if I get one call our to claim I um I'm also the chief grievance officer we'll try and address it much faster people are then you know that I can't get some numbers I'm time I can get that so you to scale up for real lucky to have you back for that I think you product on I especially on the inside oh gee I have never run for that I think there is no hearing that you to itself you realize how this situation I just have a drink on that the Kovach product if I'm gonna share that I think it's very important that whenever there is a new risk that comes out one wants to get protected but I think there's a bigger lesson here and the bigger lesson is that there will always be unfortunately something as an unknown risk which may hit me and hence if I would have if I were a consumer I'll buy more of comprehensive cover and not a disease specific cover because I did not know that there could be something called so you know it's like to go back to you so it was like to video so my lights went off I and my apartment and wife I went off and I so I'm sorry for this so looking at so we have just announced a 15 minutes so we are at a dribbling projector for 50 so I will like read out the some of the questions which I have come on the screen what will be the strategy for the insurance sector and what impact you see poster with 19 another question is you know the bit show technology in your we fill the workforce gap during the pandemic period technology for workforce they say was shown around the at a time when the common man is suffering from loss of income and and industry and I give you the cover from Rick Rick infusion in the medium down toward ahead for the insurance sector will be tough good and aggressive marketing campaign and our new product launches help to type over the crisis there's another question on deploying new technologies to ensure cybersecurity is the need of our ah so what's your views on this and they say question it on the car we are a service provider then you just want to know will you go for automation and spend me go on automation or will you was for new automation spending or next six months so if like you will respond on some of the points on here like a question is that will you're spending go and
ID will in the next six months will increase or decrease let's ask mr. sing assume that we start with medicine yeah so I think you know it is right as usual in the sense we have been spending a fair amount and I D because you know we need you to scale up to that level and right now we are not be a very similar budget and we don't think that you know we want to cut down technology is important so I think for us we all want to spend a fair amount on IT and I don't think we are looking at any compounds at the moment and you know I think we'd already approved a budget for ID and I think it's going to be work as usual so not really scale up but what we had planned for is what we are going to go ahead with there will be no comebacks excellent the next six months at least we're not going to do any additional but the friendly in the area of cyber security from facilitation oh there has been already at is spending NASA speak on going especially to secure personal laptop just offs and things like that what facility maybe we will spend and Eastern law edition you on cybersecurity or enabling work from home so those things will be additional other than money laughs you have to cut services because to face the macro impact we already see it ended business or 10 percent in the April month business so we are praying or hoping that flattening of the cow happen sooner than later I'm sure of course we will flatten it quite fast hopefully to three months but you know if it continues on prolongs us there is some more break again due to monsoon and things like that you have to be mindful of that so there should be so we don't want to expect that easterly in a major way so suddenly of course we will make these strategic changes where which to shift to go business business strategy changes already up as we speak the transformative change is already a thing has to speak up so that would those are the changes in transformation so this is the answer for all the four questions mister do you John I think spendings Victor the same one will you think he's not decrease it nests its funds well you know sometimes these spend may not be a direct reflection of focus on automation but if the question is that will you have more focus on digitization and automation the answer is obviously yes yes and yes every single customer journey and the distributed journey from sales to service to claims most importantly he is being relooked at that is being autumn eyes that is being digitized for obvious reasons so there is a massive focus on that in fact there is also a little bit of reprioritization happening to make the consumers journeys even more faster and better and through digitization so there is a massive focus and if there was a way to measure digital index of an organization is on 1st of April this year and if we have the ability to measure the same 12 months from now I think the jump will be at least 3 for X if not more so that's the my take on that there was a question on will you do aggressive marketing came in muting this time can I take that yes yes yes very poor Tanja so I think I don't know whether a the marketing campaign is the right word but at the same time there is a need to reach out to the customer and offer them risk protection but there is a there's a very tough times the customers have got a lot of challenges and hence in any marketing communication there is a need for us to be very responsible insensitive I think responsible and sensitive is very very important for any communication marketing or campaign that we may do that's my take on those countries very important point about sensitivity miss you want to respond on any of the points yeah I'll speak about the tools that are needed now going forward so we we have a significant population of product and tech and earlier tools like slack were essentially dedicated to only those kind of teams but increasingly we are thinking that there is a requirement to if the retooling is the right word to move away from the current way of doing business we are not going to be going back to the same old way and we are not fall back into that it's going to be a complete transformation in the way we work and and the tools that I want to be needed are going to be different so new collaboration tools that allows people to work work from home but be as effective as all and it basically while you're in a lockdown phase there is also this challenge that you don't want to take any large transformative decisions right now because you you are not sure about how it is going to impact everybody in this lockdown phase but there is definitely going to be a time frame to start looking at retooling and start seeing how the sort of organization is able to sort of be agile and able to have our to that level the we are a technology company and so our primary focus has always been investment in tech and creating solutions for from a tech point of view but what we are what we'll do now is we'll go away from maybe a lot of experimentation and focus more on things that are working maybe eliminate say about sixty to seventy percent of the new pilot or experiments that we were trying and then add i word this resources and energy towards what we believe is going to be transformative and in that sense not really gives the dollars that we would be spending but but more energies towards what an active effort that we are that we are looking at the yeah the on the business side we were trying to root out 2500 crows this financial here that is meant to be read only carefully calibrated from a premium point of view but like the business to iyy is not really very different and so for us we we were earlier on a growth path of about three x YY it's come down to about one point two x so that will probably allow us should take our size to over two plus but maybe not earlier target that does take the last question our ask you is that the rating agencies and the potential agencies out given a projection of the growth rate of india for this year from someone talking about one percent someone talking 0.5 someone talking 0.2 someone to talking about negative one percent something like that so each touch that in any baby like five years back six years back we where their own 7 percent 6 percent and then now we are talking about 0% GDP growth this year so is it like in any way going to impact your industry measure so so definitely I can already feel them back especially the there is some contraction in collections and having said that thankfully it's the beginning of the year and we have next 11 months to make up and it all depends on how protracted this problem I guess it's very difficult to predict even the scenario especially weather event of rainy season or you know generally monsoon season diseases freak out so I am hoping that there is no revival or a part to corona part 2 which is more devastating if that doesn't happen and we managed to flatten the curve much before rain start and rains bring it's bringing prosperity that's the optimistic side of things it all depends on all things you've all loved her of two months if things are greater better of two months and the job scenario improves macro economy improves everything improves stock market would improve it is already repetitive us watch it so I'm hoping that revival would happen government has taken very courageous decision of lock down on the right at the right time and moving only hoping that the slacking of curve which is speaking about happens a faster two months or one month time what happens then you through then I think we'll easily make it up whatever loss for the den that April revealed we will break it up like my general insurance Kelly's already mentioned that they are actually seeing incremental business so there's one part of life insurance you could see some kind of contracts enable so given that kind of scenario of unpredictability that is why we have gone for the quarterly business plan or you know we've not even made an Ole Miss this plan and we'll watch this side there is a material economic impact definitely as I see they marry a depressed Michelle seemed to respond on this the impact of the GDP yes yes so are in which happen which could be positive for an industry so we sought you know certain amount or rate hardening and the property side premium so premium has gone up because of certain agreement because this rate some hardened on the property side there are certain fixed rates that they have set up so we saw some things improving of course if a lot of industry starts going sick you know and a lot of business starts closing now little definitely have an impact we can't be away from that if you see the creature of what insurances you know a largest market segment used to be earlier motor and it means to be motive now if you see sales going down drastically and business not going up of course there will be some impact so those are that is one industry where we definitely think that some business will shrink a little bit and that is motor industry we think that the property sort of industry which is not a used line for me but for me meaning for our industry but it has a lot of volume and profitability with it might shrink is because we see certain factories going sick at this for a time could happen and you know government really if they bring in policies to sustain them might not happen sure it's GI is a little bit of compulsory insurance on him you need to long time insure yourself health is something which is not compulsory in nature belief to grow by itself because you know it needs to sustain myself so we think that compared to what the market is going to go down we should not see so much shrinkage is happening but some industries are definitely bleeding and it has going to have some impact on us and you know if we come up with innovative things you know the penetration level if you see of GI industry is very very poor compared to the market so you know so many of us like people like some of us would not have house insurances you know would not have contained insurance so if the acceptability buys in and penetration improves I think our industry could still withstand this one and grow at a certain pace gie in distributing visas already not a highly penetrated market ourselves these are my thoughts so you know that's where I would like your nmi thank you right thank you I'm a euro perspective on the GDP decreasing so fast well I'm not an economist but I am just drawing a best-case scenario let's hope that quarter one has got moderate impact quarter two should have mild impact and quarter three onwards we get back to growth I think I think if I put all the data in front of me I have reasons to believe that quarter one mild impact quarter to low impact quite a free back to just ending what minute like can be any minute show us the yeah yeah I would describe the current situation more like not really I mean I would sort of separate the wireless impact and the log down and I would say that the economic impact has been essentially more due to the log down effect and if you were to compare that to treating a patient it is similar to say inducing coma in the person so that he gets healthier and then he is sort of is revised and gets back on his feet so it is not have not been a demand problem obviously there are going to be after-effects of this but it is essentially to protect the overall over sort of health of the nation and then obviously the economy so I think my view my personal user is going to be get back it's got to get back very fast first quarter probably is I mean will not see any any revival but post that it's going to be a quick back to normal kind of a situation is what is my personal and I'm I'm more of an optimist and my I will favor a quick recovery of the business fantastic so this this we will end it here and I thank all the eminent experts here who are joining the panel and all of our audience who are watching this right now for your participation cushion and great discussions and debate and let's hope that everything improves out very fast and this saw the video will be available on the YouTube or by tomorrow or day after and I will attest of wall to share interpretations of you are like the discussions this saw thank you all not startled ever thank you so much thank you
