India Post launches e-PLI bond/ digital version of PLI policy bonds on Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav occasion

Department of Posts, Ministry of Communications, launched the digital version of the Postal Life Insurance policy bonds, also termed as “ePLI bond”, on the occasion of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav in an event here today. 12 October is celebrated as the Postal Life Insurance Day in the week-long Postal week festival. Shri Vineet Pandey, Secretary, Department of Posts, Shri Alok Sharma, DG, Department of Posts, Smt Sandhya Rani, Member PLI, Smt Manju Kumar, Chief General Manager PLI and Abhishek Singh, President & CEO (Additional Charge), National e-Governance Division (NeGD) attended the event.

While inaugurating the “ePLI bond” Secretary Posts Shri Vineet Pandey stated that ePLI bond is the Department of Posts’ first digital integration with Digilocker which will greatly facilitate citizens in a meaningful way by providing ease of access and quick claim settlements.

ePLI bond is made available in collaboration with DIGILOCKER, National eGovernance Division (NeGD), Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) Government of India. ​​DigiLocker has been providing a secure cloud-based platform for storage, sharing and verification of documents & certificates for various organisations.

By securely logging in to the Digilocker, the user can download the digital copy of the Policy bond on their mobile phone. Both the Postal Life Insurance (PLI) as well as the  Rural Postal Life Insurance (RPLI) policy bonds are available in the ‘electronic form’. ePLI policy bonds having a digital signature is valid proof as per the Rule 9A of the Information Technology (Preservation and Retention of Information by Intermediaries Providing Digital Locker Facilities) Rules, 2016 notified on February 8, 2017, vide G.S.R. 711(E). It shall be treated at par with the original policy bond issued by the Department of Posts for processing all types of Financial & Non-financial requests related to PLI/RPLI.

If the user is holding multiple Postal & Rural Postal Life Insurance Policies like Endowment Assurance, Anticipated Endowment Assurance, Whole Life Assurance, Convertible Whole Life Assurance, Child Policy, Yugal Suraksha (in PLI) & Gram Priya (in RPLI), all of the policies can be downloaded immediately after the issue of the policy bond by the Department of Posts. The policyholder of PLI need not wait for the delivery of the physical copy of the PLI policy bond. This facility is available for all new and old policyholders.

The policyholder will get the benefit of presenting the digital copy during the maturity settlement at the Post office from the digilocker mobile app’s issued section. The digital copy will be treated as a valid policy document by the Postal Department. Similarly, the policyholder can use the ePLI Bond as proof, for effecting any changes that are required in the policy document like address change, nomination e.t.c without the hassle of carrying the physical copy.

The secured server authentication, embedded digital signature and encrypted QR code are some of the unique mechanisms developed by the Department of Posts to bring much needed digital transformation in the Insurance Sector of India Post. It will not only reduce the administrative overhead but also provide secure real-time verification of documents.

The Department of Posts aims to reduce the turn-around time for citizens for claim and maturity cases. As an adjunct to the above citizen-friendly feature, various other administrative mechanisms are also being put into place for hassle-free and time-bound settlements of Postal Life Insurance claims.