Vehicle insurance to save you from carrying papers

Vehicle owners, car or scooter, must have faced the traffic police at least once. They would ask you licence, registration papers etc. If you say you have all the papers, then very often vehicle owners are floored by the final question, "Do you have insurance papers?" Not many carry, except for the meticulous, so many papers. The Insurance Regulatory Authority of India has now come out with a digitalised version of car and scooter insurance by which you can show the police on demand the digital version of vehicle insurance. The new policy, e-Vahan Beema, which has already been implemented in Telangana on a pilot basis, is going to be extended all over the country. Under the e-Vahan Beema policy, the vehicle owner who is the insurer carries the policy in a digital form, which has Quick Response code, a type of bar code containing all the details of the policy. The traffic police can scan the QR code and read all the details from the database of the insurer. The IRDA has asked insurance companies to issue vehicle insurance policies, particularly in Telangana, both in the electronic and physical form from December 1, 2015. Under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, driving a motor vehicle without third party insurance is punishable. If the policy holder does not have an email ID, an SMS will be sent to the person with details of the policy. The IRDA says the digital format will help in saving the cost, which could be passed on to the insured. Facilitating the policy, the IRDA has done away with Know Your Customer requirement.