Telenor strengthens value proposition by offering free life insurance cover to consumers

PUNE, 7TH OCTOBER 2015: In a first of its kind initiative in the telecom industry, Telenor India today announced free life insurance cover for its existing 47.55 million as well as potential new customers across its six operating circles.

Telenor will offer life insurance for free to all active customers of the company. By spending on regular recharges with a small incremental value, Telenor consumers will get the benefit of an life Insurance cover, which will be a hundred times of the monthly recharge value and up to a maximum of Rs 50,000. This is Telenor’s innovative customer centric scheme to be able to offer greater value. It would help contribute meaningfully to the financial inclusion agenda of the government ensuring financial security for family members.

Currently in India only 3.9% of the population has a insurance cover of any type. The primary reasons for the low penetration are issues like lack of awareness, cumbersome enrollment process, cost of insurance and lack of trust. Lack of distribution network has also restricted insurance products becoming popular and pervasive. Telenor’s insurance scheme has been designed to address all these issues.

Unveiling this industry first initiative, Mr. Vivek Sood, CEO, Telenor India said, “This is an innovative product that will bridge the disparity in access to life insurance among the low and middle-income individuals. With insurance penetration being very low in the country, our scheme has the potential to empower society through financial security. Our deep understanding of mass-market consumers behavior, a huge retail network and efforts to create awareness around services beyond basic voice will enable us to remove persistent financial risks faced by our customers. With the life insurance offer, Telenor will create a unique differentiation in financial services just like we have done with our affordable mobile service.”

Telenor India has taken a promise to offer additional value, and make its propositions simple and fair for all customers. To ensure more value for money to our mass market customers, we have tied up with our partners to offer Insurance which is easy to get and simple to understand.

Speaking on this occasion, Sukrit Maitre, Circle Business Head, Maharashtra and Goa, Telenor India said, “This is a significant step towards enabling last-mile connectivity to consumers by offering convenience of insurance services at their doorstep of our customers. We are making it easy and simple for them to access a financial instrument by combining the reach of our mobile network with an innovative insurance product.”

Customers can avail this service by calling customer call center or dial the self help menu *121# or opt-in for it by approaching any of the 2100 Telenor stores. For every recharge done by the customer, a 100X insurance cover will be provided to him. For customers availing this offer, there is no separate documentation required.

Telenor will work with Shriram Life Insurance and MicroEnsure to take the initiative to the masses. At each customer touch point, trained staff will be available to educate the customers and address their queries. In the unfortunate incident of death of a customer, the claim will be processed by submitting relevant documents like the death certificate, nominee id proof and the SIM card. The settlement will be done within seven days of submission of all relevant documents.

Shriram Life has a rich experience in insurance business and has already insured more than 1 crore lives. With an average ticket size of Rs 13000, Shriram Life has been focusing on mass market and has carved a distinct market position among the private insurers.

Commenting on the new venture Mr. Manoj Jain, CEO, Shriram Life Insurance said, “This is a win win partnership to extend the benefits of insurance to the socially weaker segment especially in rural areas. The reach of Telenor India and the expertise of MicroEnsure in micro-insurance, together with Shriram Life “ Aam Aadmi” approach will play the role of a catalyst in making available affordable life insurance and mitigate the risks of a common man.”

Richard Leftley, CEO, MicroEnsure said, “Embedded insurance products cast a wider financial net, wide enough to catch the poor but without the limitations of traditional marketing and sales processes. With this venture we look forward to creating a powerful driver of core business for our partners and whilst mitigating risks for millions of consumers in India. With this initiative we hope to set new benchmarks.”

MicroEnsure will help in designing these mass-market insurance products and provide on-going operational support required to make a digital product work. It is the world’s first and largest organisation whose exclusive focus is to address the mass market’s need to mitigate risk. MicroEnsure serves 15 million people in 17 countries around the world with insurance, the majority of whom have never before been insured.

In August this year Telenor Group had got an “in-principle” approval from Reserve Bank of India to the joint application of Dilip Shanghvi Family & Associates (DSA) and IDFC to set up a payment bank in India. With this Telenor will be able to offer mobile banking solutions and extend the benefits of banking to the unbanked. Telenor is preparing to launch mobile banking services soon.

About Telenor India:
Telenor (India) Communications is a wholly owned company of Norway-based Telenor Group and offers mobile telephony services under the brand Telenor. The company launched it services in 2009 and till recently was known as Uninor in the market. Telenor’s pre-paid GSM mobile services are commercially available in the six circles of UP (West), UP (East), Bihar (including Jharkhand), Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. It will soon start commercial operations in Assam. Together, these circles account for more than 50% of India’s population giving Uninor the ability to serve every second person in India.

Telenor has positioned itself as Sabse Sasta operator in India and offers value for money and relevant voice and Internet services to 47.55 million subscribers. Its three-pillar strategy of being the best in basic services, mass-market distribution and low cost operations has helped the company grow to the 4th position in customer market share in its operational six circles.