hyderabad union finance minister p chidambaram today launched the irdas insurance repository system irs here chidambaram said the irs will also have digitised nonlife insurance policies soon meanwhile the insurance regulatory and development authority irda said the insurance repository system set up by the regulator will be the first of its kind in the world irda recently said five companies have been given the status of insurance repositories and provided with a licence that will be valid till july 31 2014 the five companies are nsdl database management limited central insurance repository limited shcil projects limited cams repository services limited and karvy insurance repository limited irda recently said that insurers can enter into agreements with one or more repositories according to irda the objective of creating an insurance repository is to provide policy holders the facility to keep insurance policies in electronic form it is also to undertake changes modifications and revisions in the insurance policy with speed and accuracy in order to bring about efficiency transparency and cost reduction in the issuance and maintenance of insurance policies the repository will issue a unique code number to all policy holders and their policies will come under that number it maintains the history of the policy details such as claims nominees beneficiaries and other data