If you have held multiple insurance policies over the years, switched insurers, ported policies, or filed claims, there’s a high chance your records are scattered across different companies and intermediaries.
In such cases, accessing your history, filing a claim, or switching insurers, becomes a challenge as there is no single place where all your insurance data is stored.
The issue was recently highlighted in a social media post by Beshak.org (an insurance discovery platform), which pointed out how insurance data today remains fragmented across insurers and TPAs (Third-Party Administrators), making it difficult for policyholders to access their own records or seamlessly switch providers.
The post noted that policyholders often have to repeatedly submit their history because “no one else has it,, underlining the need for a centralised system.
To address this, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) is working on two key initiatives aimed at improving transparency and consumer protection: the Public Insurance Registry (PIR) and the Bima Sugam platform, respectively.
What IRDAI is planning
On March 17, 2026, IRDAI met with insurers and stakeholders in New Delhi to discuss the vision, design and implementation roadmap of these initiatives.
The objective is to build a digital public infrastructure for insurance that enhances transparency, consumer protection and efficiency across the sector.
Public Insurance Registry (PIR)
The proposed Public Insurance Registry (PIR) is envisaged as a consent-based digital system that captures the entire lifecycle of insurance policies.
This includes:
Policy issuance
Claims history
Grievances redressal and disputes
For policyholders, this could mean having all insurance-related information in one place, regardless of the insurer.
Currently, such data is maintained separately by each insurer, making it difficult for customers to access or transfer their records seamlessly.
Ajay Seth, Chairman, IRDAI, stated, “The proposed Public Insurance Registry represents an important step towards modernising the information architecture of the insurance sector. By enabling standardised, consent-based access to structured insurance data, the initiative seeks to enhance transparency, strengthen consumer confidence, and support more effective regulatory oversight. This reform is intended to build a more accountable, efficient and data-driven insurance ecosystem that can support sustainable growth in insurance inclusion, as envisaged in ‘Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha’ vision.”
How PIR solves key policyholder challenges
The proposed Public Insurance Registry aims to fix long-standing issues in how insurance information is stored and accessed.
“The Policy Information Repository (PIR) addresses the long-standing issue of fragmented policy information by enabling a consolidated, consent-based view of all policies in one place. Today, policyholders often struggle with limited visibility and scattered records, which can lead to delays, especially during claims processing,” says Trupti Balasubramaniam, CEO & Principal Officer, Probus.
