Tune into your favourite FM radio to know more about insurance

For the first time in its history, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) is turning to radio stations to promote insurance as a product among masses. Beginning February 20, IRDAI has launched an insurance awareness campaign, in the form of radio jingles, for a period of six months.

Here, not only the All India Radio (AIR) channels are being targeted but even the private radio channels. Fever 104, Suryan FM, RED FM, Radio City and Radio Mirchi will be playing ads in smaller towns as well as cities. In the initial phase, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada will be used. Currently, the regulator runs TV campaigns alerting customers to scams claiming to offer bonuses from IRDAI. 

Even after 15 years of privatisation of the insurance industry, penetration which is a measure of insurance premium to gross domestic product (GDP) stands at 3.4 percent according to Swiss Re's sigma report. In FY15, insurance penetration had hit a 10-year low in India dropping to 3.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Once surging consistently, insurance penetration has been on a decline since 2009.

In 2016, owing to the strong growth in the government sponsored term insurance and personal accident scheme, which has almost seen 120 million enrollments led to greater insurance reach.