"Empathy AI has the potential to bridge the gap between human understanding and machine intelligence, creating a world where technology is not only smart but also compassionate." - Unknown.

In recent years, the insurance industry, like many others, has become increasingly reliant on technology. While this has provided numerous benefits, it has also introduced new hazards, particularly cyber threats.

Increased internet penetration and mobile data usage has made the world around us increasingly digital. Consumers today are leveraging UPI for digital payments, Alexa to turn on their favorite music and using Swiggy / Zomato for their dining needs. In this rapidly changing world, a predominantly physical-intensive industry such as insurance is also undergoing rapid transformation. Data analytics and new-age technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are leading this change.

Term ESG - Environmental, Social and Governance is gaining lot of attention in the recent time. ESG principles are adopted by the companies to ensure their operations does not hamper environmental and social development and don’t go against corporate governance standards. Companies having good ESG score are attracting more investors. Investments are no longer only related to the value for money, but it is an investment in sustainable future.

The financial year 2022-23 for the non-life industry has come to an end with an impressive growth of premium by 16.36% over previous year. The total premium of non-life industry stands at Rs 256920.22 crores i.e approximately $ 31 billion.

Insurance is critical to financially safeguard every citizen of the country, yet the penetration is less than ideal. One of the biggest problems that the Indian Insurance industry suffers from is that of perception. This is an industry that continues to pay claims and continues to bleed; the industry combined ratio stands at about 118%. Despite such a high combined ratio, the industry suffers from trust issues. The unhealthy combined ratio has continued to impact many insurers and had an adverse impact on their viability and long-run sustainability. However, the current IRDAI regulator is working relentlessly to introduce measures that will help improve the long-term sustainability of insurers and thus enable them to reach further to the grass root level and address customer worries.

Mr KS Vishwanath a renowned international marine insurance expert and author of a widely acclaimed book ‘Insuring Cargoes’ published by London market shares his views in a candid interview with editor of the newsletter.

As we slowly reboot and stride back to normal, we should not forget how a pandemic like COVID-19 can wreak havoc across every walk of life – be it country, organisation or people. It has changed the perception and outlook towards most of the things we used to do, forcing us to relook at every aspect of our normal life.

Traveling to a foreign land is one of its kind experience; one gets to explore new cultures, cuisines, places, and much more. Traveling gives a new perspective, adds new elements to one’s personality, and helps attain meaningful lessons. Traveling abroad requires meticulous planning right from visa to tickets, from accommodation to itinerary, etc. One crucial component while planning a foreign trip is ‘Travel insurance,’ which people often tend to take lightly. However, good travel insurance covers you against various exigencies that you may encounter on your trip and ensures that you enjoy a worry-free vacation. In the next few paragraphs, I will talk about the various benefits of travel insurance and what it covers.

Cyber risk has consistently featured amongst the top three risks in line with the global trends. Cyber-attacks in India rose by around 200% in 2020, to 1,158,208 from 394,499 in 2019, according to Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) data. Cyber risks continued to remain at elevated levels in 2021, with more than 600,000 cyber security incidents being reported in the first six months of the year alone. India is among the most impacted countries due to cyber incidents, and organizations across sectors have been affected.

Sanctions and International trade are two concepts that have a significant impact on the General Insurance market. Sanctions are restrictions or penalties imposed on countries or individuals to achieve specific policy goals, while international trade involves the exchange of goods and services between countries. The interplay between these two concepts affects the General Insurance market in several ways.

In our first part, we saw what constitutes expenses of management and what are the current regulations in force for controlling expenses of management

Attending IUMI’s spring session was a wonderful experience. A superb workshop, with lots of important maritime and global marine insurance issues were discussed and deliberated during the committee discussions amongst the members