Airtel & HDFC Life Join Hands to Leverage Technology In Delivering Financial Security

Bharti Airtel (Airtel), one of the world’s leading telecommunication services company, and HDFC Life Insurance, India’s largest non-bank promoted private life insurer have joined hands to leverage technology and the deep penetration of mobile services to build a financially secure India.

Airtel has launched a prepaid bundle that will come with in-built life insurance cover (term plan) from HDFC Life Insurance. Airtel’s new Rs 249 prepaid bundle will come with Rs 4 lakhs life cover from HDFC Life along with 2GB data, Unlimited Calls to any network and 100 SMS/day. The recharge is valid for 28 days and policy cover till recharge is active. A customer needs to enrol for the insurance after first recharge through SMS, My Airtel App or Retailer. The insurance renews automatically for subsequent recharges.

As per the IRDAI, the insurance penetration in India is less than 4% (of the population) while smartphones will account for 38% of all networked devices by 2022, i.e., 829 million, compared to 26% in 2017, i.e., 404.1 million (Source: Cisco VNI). The Airtel – HDFC Life partnership leverages their respective digital platforms and Airtel’s distribution reach, including a phygital experience in rural pockets, to make it very simple for millions of uninsured and underinsured Indians with a mobile phone to get a life cover every time they recharge their mobile phones.

The policy, which is available to all customer aged 18-54 years, requires no paperwork or medical examination(the customer is only required to give a declaration of good health) and the policy or CoI will be instantaneously delivered digitally. A physical copy of the insurance can be provided on request. Airtel’s innovative prepaid bundle gives convenience to mobile customers with a significant amount of data and sizeable insurance protection at under Rs 9 per day. The entire process is digitally delivered in a matter of a few minutes at any Airtel retail store or on MyAirtel app. Airtel has over 1.1 million retail outlets, and as of December 31, 2018, its mobile services covered 786,134non-census towns and villages and its network covered 95.3% of India’s population.

Says Adarsh Nair, Chief Product Officer, Bharti Airtel: “A telco is well positioned to provide the digital backbone to drive innovation and create value for consumers. This is first among many powerful use cases that leverage the power of a telco to build a digitally enabled and financially inclusive India. Insurance adoption is abysmally low in India, including in urban areas. Price, access and convenience of payments are barriers to adoption. With this innovation, Airtel is removing those barriers for providing basic insurance to a very large set of India’s population and making the process extremely simple – just recharge your phone and you are insured. We are really excited to join forces with HDFC Life who shares our vision of leveraging technology for the good of people and delight customers with meaningful innovation.”

Commenting on the tie-up, Suresh Badami, Executive Director – HDFC Life, said “At HDFC Life, we are constantly looking at creating eco-systems that enable us to improve our reach of insurance products. Two of India’s customer-centric brands have come together to offer this innovative product. I am confident that this tie-up is a great opportunity to make insurance accessible to every Indian. We will continue to create more awareness and bring solutions that help reduce the protection gap in India”

Airtel’s new Rs 249 prepaid bundle is available to customers across India. As of December 31, 2018, Airtel’s mobile services customer base in India was approximately 284 million.