Chennai, Aug 19 (IANS) The Central government on Wednesday notified 24 more insurers, both life and non-life, to undertake Aadhaar authentication services, taking the total so authorised to 53, a senior industry official said.

However, a notable omission from the list is the government-owned general insurer New India Assurance Company Ltd.

According to the industry official, the Centre in a gazette notification on Wednesday allowed these 24 life and non-life insurance companies to undertake Aadhaar authentication services of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) under Section 11A of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

In April this year, the government had allowed a total of 29 insurers - life and non-life - to undertake Aadhaar authentication services.

The April 2020 list did not list the government-owned four general insurers and Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), but the new notification has three of these general insurers, save New India Assurance, as well as LIC.

As per the notification, the Central Government said the 24 insurers were selected after it was satisfied that they comply with standards of privacy and security under the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016.

According to an industry official, the insurers were given permission as a part of the `Know Your Customer' process.

Earlier, the insurers used to collect the data from the policyholders at the time of settling the claims. Now they can authenticate Aadhaar details at the time the policy is issued.