Now Get Digital Copy of Postal Life Insurance Policies Via DigiLocker: Here’s How

On the celebration of the Azaadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, the Department of Posts (DoP) has introduced the launch of digital versions of the Postal Life Insurance policy bonds and the 'ePLI bond' in an electronic medium, which will now be available to eligible policyholders via DigiLocker. The subscriber can obtain a digital copy of the Policy bond on their mobile phone by securely signing in to the DigLocker using Aadhaar authorization. According to the IT Act 2000, this digital copy of PLI policy bonds with a digital signature in the DigiLocker platform is valid proof. It will be processed in the same way as the original policy bond issued by the Department of Posts for all types of financial and non-financial Postal Life Insurance (PLI)/Rural Postal Life Insurance Policies (RPLI) applications.

The Department of Posts has said in a statement that it "intends to minimize the use of physical documents that will enhance effectiveness of service delivery, making hassle-free and friendly services for the citizens."

Benefits for the PLI/RPLI subscribers

• For insurance, an insurance bond is an essential document, and quick access to insurance bonds is important. As a result, delivering digital PLI/RPLI bonds through DigiLocker would be of great benefit to consumers, allowing them to keep the bond in a secure and safe form without incurring any additional costs.
• After purchasing a Postal Life Insurance policy at the Post Office or on the India Post website, the Policy Bond is available in digital format.
• The digitally signed copy of the policy bond is instantly accessible for download from the DigiLocker mobile application upon the acceptance/approval of a proposal.
• All Postal & Rural Postal Life Insurance Policies, such as Endowment Assurance, Anticipated Endowment Assurance, Whole Life Assurance, Convertible Whole Life Assurance, Child Policy, Yugal Suraksha (in PLI) & Gram Priya (in RPLI), may be accessed using the same authentication process if the subscriber has multiple Postal & Rural Postal Life Insurance Policies.
• Many times, the physical copy of the policy bonds is old and the upkeep of it is difficult. Now with a digital copy available in Digilocker, the policyholder will get the benefit of showing digital copy during the maturity claim settlement through the issued section of the DigiLocker app. Similarly, now the policyholder can show the digital policy bond for any changes that are required in the policy document like address change, nomination, etc.
• All the subsequent changes on the policy bonds will be synced to the DigiLocker by the Department of Posts servers. Therefore, the policyholder gets the benefit of always keeping the updated version of the policy bond in digital format in the mobile app, said DoP in a statement.

Benefits to the Department

According to a statement of DoP, the benefits available to the department are as follows:

a. The Postal Officer can check the veracity of the digital PLI Policy document by using a Digi locker QR code reader. Only this app can read the policy details from the QR code which is encrypted.

b. During the policy servicing, the Post office staff can validate the digital copy simply by verifying the digital signature and scanning the encrypted QR code embedded in the Policy bond from within the issued section of the DigiLocker app.

c. This will drastically reduce the policyholders' complaints regarding missing policy bonds, issue of duplicate policy bonds, etc.

d. The verifiability through the Aadhaar authentication system, having embedded digital signature and encrypted QR code will reduce fraudulent cases to a substantial extent.

e. As the name in DigiLocker (which in turn is obtained from Aadhaar) is matched with that of PLI Policy, the Postal Department gets the benefit of clean and identifiable KYC.

Steps to download or verify policy bonds in DigiLocker

DigiLocker is a digital platform under the Digital India Program that allows individuals to obtain legitimate documents/certificates in the online form from their respective sources. Policyholders can download or validate policy bonds in DigiLocker by following the procedures below.

• The policyholder is required to enter the policy number after successfully authenticating with Aadhaar from their mobile app.
• The DigiLocker app will then verify certain credentials of the subscriber such as name and date of birth from the Aadhaar database with that registered on the Postal Life Insurance database.
• Upon effective authentication, the policyholder can download the policy bond and they can also access the same under the "Issued Documents" section of the DigiLocker mobile app.