IRDAI's September 1 consultation paper proposes the one fix every family with three insurers and a forgotten ULIP has wanted: a single, consent-based view of all policies. Called the Public Insurance Registry, it is framed as Digital Public Infrastructure under the Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha Act 2025, not as a mega-database to be copied in Delhi. The core idea - summarised by Business Standard on September 1-2, 2026 from the IRDAI paper - is that your insurer still holds your policy file, but a common layer lets you, another insurer (with your consent) or a regulator discover and verify it using shared standards. Comments are due September 30, so the design can still change.

Method: What the Paper Covers and What This Guide Uses

This guide summarises the consultation paper's structure as reported by Business Standard (Sep 1 8:15 PM, Sep 2 2:53 PM) and the March 2026 PIR concept note; it is not legal advice. Where the paper lists options rather than decisions, we flag them as options. All claims about data types and controls cite the paper's headings: what data PIR could link, how source-system primacy works, how identity is established, and who gets access under what purpose.

The Three Data Modes: Reference, Governed Copy, Anonymised Aggregate

PIR would link product details, policy and claims records, intermediary information, grievances and unclaimed amounts, and could connect - without bulk copying - to Central KYC Registry, Aadhaar authentication, VAHAN, health and mortality registries, weather and disaster databases and court systems. The three handling modes matter for your daily life. Reference means PIR holds only a pointer - "policy X lives at Insurer Y" - and fetches detail from Y when you approve it. Governed copy means information genuinely needed across insurers (for example, a cross-insurer fraud check that the Supreme Court's August FRAUD SIT order tried to solve manually) can be held centrally but under defined controls and retention limits. Anonymised aggregate means researchers and policymakers see trends - protection gaps, loss ratios - with no personal identifiers. For you, that means a motor claim search that today requires calling two insurers could, with consent, be a single verified lookup at renewal, but the claim documents never permanently leave the issuing insurer.

Identity: Why Aadhaar + PAN + CKYC Plus Probabilistic Matching

Every Indian insurance problem starts with three spellings of the same name. The paper proposes combining strong anchors (Aadhaar, PAN, CKYC) with probabilistic demographic matching where an anchor is missing, assigning confidence levels and requiring manual review for low-confidence matches. New policies would adopt PIR standards from an agreed date; old policies would be mapped at renewal or material events via a mapping layer, not re-issued. That phased standardisation explains the Bima Sugam link: Bima Sugam India Federation (targeting motor, health, term live by end-September 2026) is the transaction marketplace; PIR is the data rail that lets that marketplace avoid re-KYC. The September 30 PIR comments and the September-end Bima Sugam go-live are therefore linked - one defines how data moves, the other where you buy.

Access is purpose-limited and role-based. You can see your own information; an insurer can see your relevant claims history only with specific, informed, revocable, auditable consent for a stated purpose (underwriting, servicing, fraud check). IRDAI and authorised investigatory bodies can see more for supervision, but the paper lists purpose limitations, data masking and audit trails, and explicitly says commercially sensitive pricing, underwriting rules and product strategies would not be shared cross-industry. Compliance must meet the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, Aadhaar Act 2016 and IT Act 2000. Governance is proposed via converting the Insurance Information Bureau into a wholly IRDAI-owned not-for-profit that sets up PIR under separate regulation.

What to Do Now: Three Checks Before September 30

First, normalise your KYC. If your health policy says "R. Kumar" and your motor policy says "Ravi Kumar S/o...", a future PIR match will drop to low confidence and trigger manual review. Align Aadhaar, PAN and CKYC spelling across insurers now. Second, track your own unclaimed. The paper explicitly lists unclaimed amounts as a use case; until PIR launches, use IRDAI's existing unclaimed portal and insurer-wise search. Third, if you are an intermediary or employer with group cover, watch the January 1, 2027 tagging rule: every proposal and certificate must then carry salesperson name, mobile and branch email, which will feed PIR's intermediary layer and mis-selling traceability. Don't share Aadhaar OTPs with unknown callers claiming "PIR registration" - IRDAI has not opened consumer registration; the September 30 window is for stakeholder comments, not policyholder enrolment.

Method note: based on IRDAI consultation paper released Sep 1 2026 as summarised in Business Standard Sep 1-2, 2026; identity and data-mode descriptions are the paper's proposals, not notified regulations. Verify final PIR regulations on irdai.gov.in before acting.