The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) has outlined a much wider role for its proposed Public Insurance Registry (PIR), envisaging an infrastructure that could connect insurance data with credit information, lending, identity systems and public databases.
Irdai first brought the idea into the public domain on 17 March through an industry discussion. A consultation paper released on Tuesday provides the first detailed view of how the regulator envisages the infrastructure working—from consolidating policy records and claims data to supporting underwriting, lending, supervision and consumer services.
Mint explains what Irdai has proposed.
What is the Public Insurance Registry and why is Irdai proposing it?
Irdai has proposed PIR as a population-scale digital public infrastructure for the insurance sector. Subject to consent and other safeguards, the platform could bring together standardized information from across the insurance ecosystem and serve insurers, policyholders, financial institutions, reinsurers, government agencies and researchers.
Indian insurers had 3.35 billion policies on their books in fiscal year 2025 (FY25), across 74 insurers, according to Irdai's annual report for FY25.
The idea goes beyond creating a central database of insurance policies. PIR is envisaged as a common information layer that could support underwriting, claims, lending, supervision and consumer services.
What could PIR mean for policyholders—and insurers?
The registry could change how customers access and manage their insurance policies. Irdai envisages a consent-based, consolidated view of all policies held by an individual across insurers. This could include coverage, policy status, benefits, premiums and renewal dates, claims history and nominee details.
It could help customers identify unclaimed amounts, track renewals and make common service requests across insurers, rather than approaching each company separately. As of 28 February, ₹8,973.89 crore in unclaimed insurance funds was lying with insurers, according to information shared by the government in Parliament in March.
The consultation paper also envisages easier health insurance portability and a common digital backbone for filing and tracking grievances across insurers and public grievance platforms.
For insurers, PIR could create a common pool of anonymised information on losses, claims and risk concentrations, helping them identify emerging trends and improve underwriting and pricing.
One of the more significant proposals is an Insurance Risk Score that could combine a customer's insurance history with information from credit information companies and other permitted external sources. The score would be consent-based and could be used as an input in underwriting decisions.
Banks have a better hold over their customers due to the historical and granular data they have about them. An insurance company CEO said the recommended changes will open a lot of doors since insurance does not have the kind of data banks do about their customers.
The consultation paper also envisages insurers accessing relevant information on a customer's existing coverage and claims history across the market, with the necessary permissions. Over time, the system could potentially draw on credit histories, traffic violations, contract performance and weather data to improve risk assessment and pricing.
“PIR could be India’s UPI moment - replacing fragmented information with verified, real time information accessible to each vertical of the insurance life cycle which enables insurance to be a transparent financial product,” said Shivangi Sharma Talwar, partner at law firm JSA.
The proposal builds on earlier reports describing PIR as a potential CIBIL-like system for insurance.
Could insurance data become part of the wider financial system?
The proposed registry could bring insurance policies closer to the broader financial system. Banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) could use PIR to verify ownership of life insurance policies and, where permitted, access information such as surrender and maturity values.
The infrastructure could also provide a common mechanism to create, manage and release liens or assignments on policies, potentially making them easier to use as collateral. It could also help financial institutions assess borrower and portfolio risks.
Reinsurers could similarly use aggregated information on exposures, losses and catastrophe risks to assess risk accumulation and plan pricing and capacity.
How far could PIR extend beyond insurance?
The registry could create an industry-wide record of the conduct and performance of insurance intermediaries, sales personnel and agents.
Earlier, Mint reported that Irdai chairman Ajay Seth wanted every policy traced to the agent or salesperson who sold it to improve accountability and curb mis-selling. The consultation paper now sets out how this could work.
PIR could maintain standardized information on persistency, complaints, mis-selling and disciplinary action, while also keeping records of blacklisted entities.
The same approach could extend to hospitals, third-party administrators, surveyors, garages and other service providers. Industry-wide information could help identify persistent delays, overcharging and poor service, while the paper raises the possibility of standardized performance scores.
The registry could also connect insurance records with identity and public databases. Aadhaar, PAN and Central KYC records could help establish a functional identity for policyholders across the insurance system, while demographic information could be used to match records where necessary.
PIR's own functional identifier, however, is envisaged as separate from raw personal identity numbers. The objective is to consistently identify a policyholder across insurers without centralising sensitive identity documents or numbers.
The paper also proposes structured sharing of validated death information from insurance claims with the Unique Identification Authority of India and the Civil Registration System. This could help update official records and curb misuse of identity-linked services after death.
PIR could eventually connect with other public systems, including vehicle, weather and disaster databases, where legally permitted and required for a specific purpose.
What does PIR mean for Irdai—and what happens next?
The registry could significantly expand Irdai's ability to monitor the insurance sector. It could consolidate information on complaints, mis-selling, policy discontinuance and distributor conduct, while giving the regulator a clearer view of claims patterns, risk concentrations and emerging problems.
Aggregated insurance data could also help government agencies identify protection gaps, assess public programmes and support policymaking in areas such as agriculture, health, transport and disaster management.
The proposal is still at the consultation stage, and its eventual form will depend on stakeholder feedback. Irdai has sought comments on the data PIR should hold, its identity architecture, privacy and consent safeguards, commercial confidentiality, governance and the transition of existing insurance records to common standards. Comments are due by 30 September.