PhonePe launches Domestic Trip Insurance with ICICI Lombard as India starts opening-up

 

• Comprehensive insurance policy covers expenses or losses from all kinds of travel-related incidents

• Sum insured up to ₹ 5 lakhs at just ₹ 499 annually

 

With the lockdown ending and domestic travel gradually starting across   the country, PhonePe, India’s leading digital payments platform, today announced the launch of a comprehensive, industry-first domestic multi-trip insurance cover in a strategic partnership with ICICI Lombard, India’s largest non-life insurance company. This product exclusively available for PhonePe users, provides one of the most affordable annual insurance covers for unlimited trips. This unique solution takes a leap forward from traditional travel insurance removing the need to insure every trip separately and will benefit both business and leisure travellers.

The new launch enables a stress-free travel experience for customers by covering risks associated with all modes of travel within the country (road, rail and air within the country) right from the time a customer leaves home till the time he/she returns. 

For domestic travellers who may be worried about stepping out during the COVID-19 pandemic, this unique, all-in-one insurance product offers a comprehensive bouquet of benefits that cover losses arising from trip cancellations, home burglary while travelling, missed connecting flights, lost baggage and more. The product also caters to the needs of customers who prefer buying domestic travel insurance every time they book a ticket or a cab. With 365-days protection at just INR 499, this is the most cost-effective and hassle-free cover that cuts across all modes of transport. 

For air travellers specifically, there is a unique feature of trip cancellation due to hospitalisation and up to INR 1,000 payout for trip cancellation due to government lockdown. In addition to this, it also provides cover against death or hospitalization due to an accident during the journey with a sum assured of INR 5 lakhs. PhonePe now offers customers a complete travel insurance product portfolio with both international and domestic travel insurance catering to the needs of all kinds of travellers. 

Speaking on the launch, Gunjan Ghai, VP & Head of Insurance, PhonePe said, “This product reflects PhonePe’s philosophy of finding time and context-relevant products for its customers.  We are excited to launch this unique and industry-first insurance cover for domestic travellers. The product offers cover for all modes of transport for unlimited trips in a year while also providing very relevant features in the current unlocking 1.0 scenario. We believe this solution will provide policyholders peace of mind so that they can focus on enjoying their travel without any worry. We remain deeply committed to  making insurance affordable, simple and accessible for over 200 Mn PhonePe users.”

On the launch, Sanjeev Mantri, Executive Director, ICICI Lombard General Insurance said, “We are delighted to associate with PhonePe for this ‘first of its kind’ travel insurance offering. At ICICI Lombard, our focus is to support our customers in their hour of need, thereby demonstrating our brand ethos of Nibhaye Vaade. As we get back to normal life amid social distancing, this product will surely benefit a large number of travelers, safeguarding them from any unforeseen circumstances. Further, the multi-trip, multi-mode makes this solution a convenient, cost-effective and extremely appealing proposition for the frequent traveler."

PhonePe users can purchase the domestic multi-trip insurance policy under the “My Money” section on the PhonePe app. The policy purchase process takes less than 2 minutes and customers will be issued their policy documents instantly on the PhonePe app.

About PhonePe:

PhonePe is India’s leading digital payments platform with over 200 million registered users. Using PhonePe, users can send and receive money, recharge mobile, DTH, data cards, pay at stores, make utility payments, buy gold and make investments. PhonePe forayed into financial services in 2017 with the launch of digital gold providing users with a safe and convenient option to buy 24-karat gold securely on its platform.

PhonePe has since launched Mutual funds and Insurance financial products like tax-saving funds, liquid funds, international travel insurance and Corona Care, a dedicated insurance product for the COVID-19 pandemic. PhonePe also launched its Switch platform in 2018, and today its customers can place orders on over 180 apps including Ola, Myntra, IRCTC, Goibibo, redBus, Oyo etc. directly from within the PhonePe mobile app. PhonePe is accepted at over 10 million merchant outlets across 400 cities nationally. 

About ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd

We are the largest private-sector non-life insurer in India based on gross direct premium income in fiscal 2020 (Source: IRDAI). We offer our customers a comprehensive and well-diversified range of products, including motor, health, crop, fire, personal accident, marine, engineering and liability insurance, through multiple distribution channels. 

ICICI Group Launches 100 ‘ICICI Digital Villages’

ICICI Group today dedicated 100 ‘ICICI Digital Villages’ to the nation at an event in New Delhi marking the bank’s efforts to partner the nation’s progress by empowering rural India. Shri Arun Jaitley, Hon’ble Union Minister of Finance, Defence & Corporate Affairs inaugurated the event, ‘ICICI Rural Summit – ‘Sashakt Gaon, Samriddh Bharat’.

The inauguration of the digital villages follows the bank’s commitment given in November 2016 to transform 100 villages into ‘ICICI Digital Villages’ in as many days. The programme involves end to end digitisation of transactions and other commercial activities, providing vocational training to villagers, extending credit facility and helping the villagers to access markets and earn a sustainable livelihood.

Speaking at the event, Ms. Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director & CEO, ICICI Bank said: “ICICI Group has always believed that the key to building a prosperous nation is through empowering its villages. In line with our vision of ‘Sashakt Gaon, Samridhh Bharat’, we have transformed 100 villages across the country in 100 days. We have created a less cash ecosystem at these villages, provided vocational training to over 11,300 villagers, including more than 7500 women and offered them credit linkages. We have done all of these in the past 100 days.

It is a great honour for us to have the Hon’ble Union Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley here with us today to inaugurate the ICICI Rural Summit. Our objective through this initiative has been to show that technology and skilling can be used to eliminate barriers that separate rural and urban India. I am confident that this large project will significantly contribute to the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of both ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’. We intend to expand the number of such villages by another 500 by December 2017. In the process, we will train an additional 50,000 individuals and impact 12.5 lakh lives.”

These villages are spread across the length and breadth of the country, the villagers here can use digital channels for banking and payments transactions. They can also open bank accounts using Aadhar-based e-KYC (electronic Know Your Customer), make cashless payments at retail stores using Point-of-Sale (POS) machines and use an SMS based mobile solution. Villagers can also deposit and withdraw cash at their doorstep. The digitisation at the village dairy co-operative units enables the societies to pay the members digitally and directly into their bank accounts.

Additionally, ICICI Bank in association with ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth (ICICI Foundation), the CSR arm of the ICICI Group, is imparting free vocational training to the villagers with a special focus on training women. As of now, over 11,300 villagers, including more than 7500 women, have been trained in the last 100 days to help them earn a sustainable livelihood. The bank is also extending credit facilities to credit-worthy trained villagers in a bid to boost self-employment opportunities in the villages. The programme has positively impacted the lives of nearly 2.5 lakh people here.

This ambitious move of transforming over 100 villages into digital villages is inspired by the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision to scale up the digital village programme. In January 2015, he had dedicated the first ‘ICICI Digital Village’ at Akodara in Sabarkantha district of Gujarat, to the nation at an event commemorating 60 years of the ICICI Group.

The 100 villages which have been transformed into ‘ICICI Digital Villages’ are located across 17 states in India. These include 16 in Gujarat, 14 each in Maharashtra & Madhya Pradesh, 12 each in Tamil Nadu & Karnataka and 11 in Rajasthan among others.

The ‘ICICI Digital Villages’ initiative have three dimensions.

The first dimension is to enhance access to seamless and digital banking. For that:

· ICICI Bank is using Aadhar-based e-KYC to help villagers open accounts in a paperless manner, without submitting physical documents. The saving accounts are linked to Aadhar to enable direct transfer of government benefits into these accounts. There is a dedicated ICICI Bank branch in each village to service these accounts.

· The bank has provided an SMS based mobile service which facilitates the villagers to transfer funds, receive SMS alerts & mini-statements and know their account balance. It is available in 10 regional languages and functions on basic feature phones as well. These languages are Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu. The bank has also set up POS machines which enables the retailers at the village including merchants, ration shops and village dairy cooperatives to accept digital payments. The Bank has also equipped Business Correspondents (BC) at these villages with micro-ATMs with GPRS facility. This allows villagers to deposit and withdraw cash by authenticating themselves with their Rupay debit card or through Aadhar based biometric authentication. Over 260 POS and micro-ATMs have been installed across these villages.

· Additionally, the bank has created a cashless payment solution for the village milk cooperative societies and its members for sale of milk. Available across many villages, it has enabled the members to receive money directly into their accounts.

The second dimension of the initiative is to impart livelihood training to the villagers. For that:

· ICICI Foundation has imparted free-of-cost training under its ‘ICICI Academy for Skills – Rural Initiative’ programme at these villages. Any resident of the village is eligible to get the training free of cost. The skill training is offered in a range of disciplines, which are identified based on the local economy around a particular village.

· The list of the disciplines includes comprehensive agriculture, dairy & vermicomposting, agriculture equipment service & repair, dress designing and sandstone cutting, mobile phone servicing and electrical home appliances. These trainings are of duration of 15 to 30 days.

The third dimension of the initiative is to provide credit linkages to enhance livelihood opportunities. The key elements are:

· ICICI Bank facilitates the villagers to form Self Help Groups (SHGs) and Joint Liability Groups (JLGs) and then offers loans to the members. ICICI Bank is also extending loan facilities to the credit-worthy villagers in the form of Kisan credit cards, gold loans and farm equipment loans among others. The bank sanctions these loans using tablet devices at the door step of the villagers and SHGs, thus helping them to save time and effort to travel to a nodal branch.

· The bank and ICICI Foundation assist the villagers in selling products through their market linkages in the local and nearby catchment areas