IRDAI eyes insurance push in rural areas with ‘Bima Vahak’ (GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) recently issued draft guidelines for Bima Vahaks, a new initiative aimed at enhancing insurance inclusion and awareness across the country.
- Bima Vahaks or insurance volunteers, are set to become a powerful force in extending insurance coverage to every Indian, regardless of their geographical location.
Types:
- The guidelines define two types of Bima Vahaks: Corporate Bima Vahaks and Individual Bima Vahaks.
- Corporate Bima Vahaks refer to legal entities registered under Indian laws and engaged by insurers.
- On the other hand, Individual Bima Vahaks can be either appointed by an insurer or appointed by a Corporate Bima Vahak.
- Insurers are allowed to engage the services of Corporate Bima Vahaks and directly appoint Individual Bima Vahaks for solicitation of insurance business and to facilitate policy and claims servicing. However, the appointing insurer holds full responsibility for the actions and conduct of the Bima Vahaks.
Key Highlights:
- Insurers are encouraged to progressively engage Individual Bima Vahaks and Corporate Bima Vahaks to achieve coverage of every Gram Panchayat. Lead insurers of each state and union territory are responsible for coordinating the deployment of resources to ensure maximum coverage.
- The scope of activities assigned to Bima Vahaks includes collecting proposal information, KYC compliance, coordination and support in policy, claims-related servicing, and facilitating premium payment processes.
- To ensure consumer protection, insurers and Corporate Bima Vahaks are required to issue identification cards to Individual Bima Vahaks and implement suitable monitoring frameworks for product solicitation and sales.
- In addition, retail outlets operated by Corporate Bima Vahaks must prominently display the name(s) of the Bima Vahak(s), appointing insurer's details, services offered, contact details of designated grievance redressal officers, and the Insurance Ombudsman's contact information.
- The draft guidelines also empower the Chairperson of the Authority to issue clarifications to resolve any difficulties in the application or interpretation of these guidelines.
Way Forward:
- With the dedicated efforts of Bima Vahaks, insurance coverage can be extended to even the remotest corners of the country, fostering trust and reliability within local communities.
UN recommends new treaty to ensure peace & security in outer space
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Why in news?
- The United Nations (UN) has recommended a new treaty for ensuring peace and security as well as preventing an arms race in outer space.
- The negotiations should lead to the development of international norms, rules and principles to address threats to space systems, according to a UN policy brief, ‘For All Humanity —The Future of Outer SpaceGovernance’.
- It recommended “a combination of binding and non-binding norms” to address emerging risks to outer space security, safety and sustainability.
Increasing space missions:
- The number of satellite launches has shot up exponentially in the past decade after it stayed consistent from 1957-2012. In 2013, there were 210 new launches, which increased to 600 in 2019 and 1,200 in 2020 and 2,470 in 2022.
- This increase is fuelled by the active participation of the private sector. Though the private sector is more active in the United States, China, India and Japan are catching up.
- NASA, through its Artemis mission, plans to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon, marking the return of humans to outer space after more than 50 years. Europe, India and Japan are also making progress in developing heavy rockets and human-rated vehicles.
- Minerals on the Moon, asteroids and planets can be attractive for countries. Moon, for example, has rich deposits of helium-3, which is rare on Earth.
- Similarly, asteroids contain abundant deposits of valuable metals, including platinum, nickel and cobalt. Some governments are in favour of the exploitation of space resources, including by the private sector.
Challenges:
- Currently, there is no agreed international framework on space resource exploration, exploitation and utilisation, or a mechanism to support how it is implemented, the brief noted.
- Currently, space traffic is coordinated by national and regional entities. Each has its own standards, best practices, definitions, languages and modes of interoperability. A lack of coordination among the entities could impact countries with less space capacity. They might find it hard to operate with limited space assets.
- Space debris is another issue. More than 24,000 objects which are 10 centimetres or larger, about one million smaller than 10 cm and likely more than 130 million smaller than one cm have been recorded.
- Further, the UN has called for additional frameworks to prevent an armed conflict in outer space and the weaponisation of outer space.
- Any satellite is capable of manoeuvring purposefully into another and destroying it. This would significantly increase the potential for space debris and the compromising of critical civilian infrastructure, disrupting communications, observation and navigation capabilities vital to the global supply chain.
Recommendations:
- In addition to a new treaty, the UN recommended an effective framework for coordinating space situational awareness, space object manoeuvres and space objects and events. They also urged member states to develop norms and principles for space debris removal that consider the legal and scientific aspects of space debris removal.
- As for space resource activities, they propose an effective framework for sustainable exploration, exploitation and utilisation of the Moon and other celestial bodies.
Existing treaties:
- In 1959, the United Nations established the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space to review and enable international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space.
- In 1963, countries agreed to prohibit testing nuclear weapons in outer space; in 1977, the prohibition of altering the space environment as a weapon was agreed upon.
- More recently, member states have set up a series of guidelines, frameworks and recommendations on issues such as mitigation of space debris, nuclear power source safety, the long-term sustainability of outer space activities and transparency and confidence-building measures in outer space activities.
Way Forward:
- The recommendations come ahead of the UN Summit of the Future, which will be held on September 22-23, 2024, in New York.
- At the Summit of the Future, member states will agree on multilateral solutions for a better tomorrow and to strengthen global governance.
