New India Assurance to launch product for builders

The New India Assurance Company Ltd (NIAC), is ready with its new product of Title Insurance covers for the benefit of builders and developers, a top company official said today.

The company has decided to come up with such a product, in view of Central Real Estate Regulation and Development Act (RERA) making it mandatory for builders/developers to buy title insurance covers for their projects, NIAC Chairman and Managing Director G Srinivasan told reporters here.

Stating that this insurance cover will protect those insured from losses arising from various risks, which affected the title and interest in property, he said the company will also assist legally, in case the title was found to be defective.

On other new products, Srinivasan said the company is working to revamp and simplify the health insurance cover for the benefit of the common man.

To a question on seeding the policy holders' account with Aadhaar, he said general insurance companies have reportedly sought extension of time beyond March 31 deadline in this regard.

"It will be a mammoth task considering that we do not have the technology in place for seeding of the account with Aadhaar and in many cases, we do not have the contact number of the policy-holder to get on to the job on a war-footing," he said.

Only when the technology is in place, will we be able to link the customer's account with the Aadhaar number, he added.

On the performance side, the official said that the company has posted a growth of 20 per cent in Indian premium for the nine months ending December 31 to reach Rs 16,800 crore against Rs 14,000 crore for the same period last year.

The company is expecting momentum of high growth to continue for quite some time aided by growing non-life industry growth due to increasing insurance penetration, Srinivasan said.