Bharti AXA mulling to launch unemployment insurance product

 Bharti AXA General Insurance is likely to come up with an "unemployment insurance" product in the current fiscal as the domestic economy is witnessing a downturn, a top company official has said.

"At present, we have applied for getting approval for an 'unemployment insurance' product from the regulator (IRDA). If we get the necessary approval, we will launch the product this fiscal," Bharti AXA General Insurance CEO Amaranath Ananthanarayanan told PTI in an interaction here over the weekend.

Earlier, another general insurance player, ICICI Lombard had come up with such a product in 2009.

Referring to product specifics, he said it would cover general credit risk of a person.
"It will be an umbrella product, which will cover general credit risk of a person during a loss of job. For example, payment of equated monthly installments of the person insured for some months...," he said.

Unemployment insurance is a new product in the general insurance category in the country, though it is a very popular product in the western countries.

According to experts, as the country becomes more economically integrated with rest of the world and faces cyclical downturn in its economy, the demand for these kind of products will be higher in the coming times.

Referring to overall product launch, Ananthanarayanan said there are 5-6 products which are pending for approval from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA) and will be launched after getting its approval.

Bharti AXA General Insurance is a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and France's AXA Group, in which 74 per cent stake is being held by the Bharti group.