The new insurance policy is perhaps the best man in the post to make the transition to the new GST regime
The newly appointed chairman of the insurance regulation and development authority of India (IRDAI), Ajay Seth, will have a sign of important policy measures to decide, because he will navigate the insurance sector through a crucial growth phase in the coming three years.
Seth took a rich expertise with him as a former financial secretary, Seth took the lead on 1 September 2025, after the former chairman, Debashis Panda, deposited the office in March of this year that filled a long vacuum in the regulatory arrangement of the insurance sector.
Seth will now supervise important shifts in the landscape of the insurance sector in his three-year-old Stint as the IRDAI chef, with an immediate task of taking a whole series of measures initiated by his predecessor, which in a certain sense were halfway through the implementation together with his own initiatives that would leave his stamp on the rule.
The start of Seth’s period coincided with the removal of goods and service tax (GST) about individual life and health insurance, which was a long-five need by the policyholders. Although the move is unanimously welcomed by all insurers as a milestone step that brings an element of affordability for insurance from the perspective of an ordinary man, there are still many buttons that do not yet have to be resolved to take the benefits of the 18 percent GST exemption from the policyholders as input tax credit for the insurance policies.
Win-win
“The new insurance policy is perhaps the best man in the position to make the transition to the new GST regime, a win-win for both policyholders and industry, given his earlier role as financial secretary while we are waiting to decode the full implications of GST 2.0,” the director and chief executive officer told a private life insurance policy line.
An important reform that Seth would have to do with is the rollout of the risk -based capital framework (RBC) framework for industry that will enable insurers to keep capital proportional to the risks they undertake to facilitate the financial stability and protection of the interests of the policyholders.
Irdai has worked on the implementation of the RBC framework to replace the current margin system with fixability in an attempt to coordinate domestic industry to worldwide standards with a risk-sensitive approach that will be good for the further globalization of the Indian insurance sector.
The complete rollout of Bima Trinity initiative consisting of BIMA Sugam, an electronic market for insurance, BIMA Vistaar, the very first composite product that covers death, personal accident, real estate and surgical hospitalization, and the portal for Bima Vahak, the localized women-oriented insurance field.
Looking for Exit
Of this, although Bima Sugam is now functional, the industry is fully looking for Irdai, so that it can be handled by industrial representatives, while Bima Vahak has been announced, but the complete rollout must be linked to the launch of Bima Vistaar. The all-in-product of Bima Vistaar has been delayed, although it was originally expected that it would be launched in April of this year.
Other important things that wait to hit the doors of the new regulator are interests in the industry to use 100 percent foreign direct investments in insurance, which came into force from the start of the current financial year and possible interest in going to initial public offers at some insurers and facilitating new players in industry.
Due to his clean reputation with a no-nonsense approach, Seth will probably handle a lot of gnarled problems in the industry with a cool calm and the industry is looking forward to a fruitful association with Seth in the future.
Published on September 5, 2025
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