Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s largest integrated telecommunication services provider, and Bharti AXA Life Insurance have partnered to leverage the deep penetration of mobile services to build a financially secure India.
Airtel today launched an innovative Rs. 599 pre-paid bundle with 2GB data/day, unlimited calls to any network and 100 SMS/day, and also offers Rs 4 lakh life insurance cover from Bharti AXA Life Insurance. The recharge comes with a validity of 84 days and the insurance cover continues automatically for three months with every recharge.
As per the IRDAI, the insurance penetration in India is less than 4% (of the population) while mobile penetration is close to 90%. It is estimated that India will have close to 830 million smartphone users by 2022.
This innovative pre-paid bundle by Airtel and Bharti AXA Life Insurance combines Airtel’s deep distribution reach, including presence in rural pockets, with Bharti AXA Life’s expertise in insurance to make it very simple for millions of uninsured and underinsured Indians to get a sizeable life insurance cover every time they recharge their mobile phones.
Airtel has engineered the entire process to be delivered digitally in a matter of few minutes. A customer needs to enrol for the insurance after first recharge through SMS, Airtel Thanks App or the Airtel Retailer.
The life insurance cover, which is available to all customers aged 18-54 years, requires no paperwork or medical examination and the certificate of insurance will be instantaneously delivered digitally. A physical copy of the insurance will be delivered to customer’s doorstep on request.
The product is currently available to customers across Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry and its availability will be gradually extended to pan-India in the next few months.
Manoj Murali, CEO – Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Bharti Airtel, said “Airtel has empowered millions of customers across Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry with world-class telecom connectivity. We believe our network is a great platform to digitally deliver a range of services and solve the problems of customers. We are delighted to partner with Bharti AXA Life Insurance to roll out this innovative offering and remove the barriers of price, access and payment inconveniences for the adoption of life insurance in India. We remain committed to building a digitally enabled and financially secure Tamil Nadu.”
“We have always been at the forefront of creating customer-centric protection products in the industry. The strategic association with Airtel as a Group master policyholder and Airtel’s pan-India vast distribution network will boost insurance penetration in the country. The introduction of term insurance with every pre-paid recharge provides protection benefits to consumers,’’ said Vikas Seth, Managing Director and CEO, Bharti AXA Life Insurance.
