IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India) has mandated that certain kinds of insurance policies (which fulfill the criteria in the Table 1) such as term and non-term life plans, pension, individual health, retail motor, immediate annuities, individual travel (domestic & overseas), individual personal accident, and general insurance policies will be issued in the electronic form by the insurer to the policyholder.
Among other conditions IRDAI has stipulated that it is mandatory to issue policies in the electronic format in the disaster prone and other vulnerable areas.
Those policyholders who wish to convert their policies in the electronic form will be able to do so by opening an e-Insurance Account or eIA. The same can be opened with an insurance repository wherein the policyholder can keep all their insurance policies in the electronic form. Those who do not have a pre-existing insurance policy will be required to open an eIA account and can do so through the insurance company whose policy they wish to avail.
The move is likely to make the process of purchasing and managing insurance highly manageable and convenient. The e-insurance format was first rolled out in Telangana on January 2, 2016 for motor insurance and has now been extended nation-wide to other forms of insurance. The date when this comes into force will be notified later by IRDAI
Eligibility Conditions for e-Insurance policy issuance
Line of Business
Sum Insured* (equal to or exceeding) (in Rs.)
Single/Annual Premium* (equal to or exceeding)
Pure term (excluding term with ROP)**
10,00,000/-
10,000/-
Other than Pure term (including term with ROP)**
1,00,000/-
10,000/-
Pension policies
NA
10,000/-
Immediate Annuities
(Pension p.a.)
NA
10,000/-
All retail General Insurance policies except Motor
10,00,000/-
5,000/-
Individual Health
5,00,000/-
10,000/-
Motor Retail
All policies
All policies
Miscellaneous
Individual Personal Accident & Domestic Travel
10,00,000/-
5,000/-
Individual Travel Insurance (Overseas)
All Policies
* Electronic policy shall be issued if either the Sum Insured or Annual Premium criteria is met
** Microinsurance policies are exempted
