IRDAI released its consultation paper on the Public Insurance Registry on 1 September 2026. It proposed a digital public infrastructure that would let a policyholder see life, health, motor, general and agriculture cover in one place.
What is being proposed
The registry is proposed as a fix for a problem the paper states plainly: policyholders have no consolidated view of their insurance across life, health, motor and other products. Also, they have coverage, nominees, policy status, renewals, benefits and claims information dispersed across insurers. Three things will decide whether a single view actually helps them, and all three are open questions in the consultation: privacy, data quality and inclusive access.
The registry is not a single database. IRDAI’s consultation paper proposes a federated design with source-system primacy. It means records stay with the insurer that holds them and PIR provides controlled access for a stated purpose. Its legal anchor is the Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha Act 2025.
Privacy
Section 10 of the paper deals with privacy in more detail than most reports have noted. Consent must follow the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023. That means the customer has to be told what they are agreeing to and why, can take the permission back at any time, and gets a record of what they allowed. Your insurer asks for that consent, not PIR. PIR keeps only a note that you gave it, what it covers and when it expires. If anyone wants to use your data for something else, they have to ask you again.
Access would run on least privilege, role-based controls and purpose limitation, with sensitive fields masked by default and unmasking allowed only for a lawful purpose under multi-level authorisation and full audit logging. Full KYC files, policy documents and medical records would not be held centrally by default.
The part worth pushing on is what the paper calls statutory processing. IRDAI’s power to call for policy, policyholder and claims data comes from the Insurance Act. It does not depend on fresh consent from the policyholder for each such action.
Data quality
The paper admits the data quality problem. Right now insurers track policies, not people, so there is no single way to tell that ten policies across five companies belong to you.
PIR would fix that by matching. Where your insurer has your Aadhaar, PAN or CKYC on file, the match is exact. Where it doesn’t, the system guesses from details like your name, date of birth and address. Each match carries a rating: high, medium, low, or needs a human to check it.
For a policyholder that means two things. Old policies bought before insurers collected strong ID are the ones most likely to be matched wrongly or missed entirely. And the record improves at renewal, because that is when better identity evidence reaches the insurer. The paper also expects insurers to contact customers directly to sort out the legacy records they cannot match confidently.
Inclusive access
The design principles commit PIR to multimodal access, physical, phygital or digital, in assisted or self-service mode. Whether that survives implementation is the open question, and it is exactly what Section 15 asks respondents about.
How to send IRDAI your comments before 30 September
Three routes, and the paper asks you to use only one per submission.
- Fill the web form directly at iib.gov.in/pir
- Or download the Excel template from the portal under Section 8 or Section 15, fill it, and upload it there.
- Or email the completed template to pirfeedback@iib.gov.in with the subject line “Public Insurance Registry: Public Consultation Response”.
IRDAI has flagged Section 8, the user stories, and Section 15, the consultation questions, as where feedback matters most. Section 8.1 covers the public and policyholders, so a reader with a view on consolidated policy views, nominee access or unclaimed amounts can respond to specific scenarios rather than write in general terms. The deadline is 30 September 2026. MyRupia reads consultation papers like this one alongside policy documents, holding no insurer tie-ups.
Disclaimer: This MyRupia article is for informational purposes only and is based on publicly available government, regulatory and industry sources. It should not be treated as investment, financial, tax, insurance, or legal advice. Information, examples, market data, and expert views mentioned in the article may change over time and should not be considered a recommendation to buy, sell, invest in, or surrender any financial product. Readers should evaluate their individual circumstances and consult a qualified financial professional before making decisions.