Page 8 - Insurance Times September 2023

the deceased and is assisting in the The ship's owner, Shoei Kishen Kaisa As quality of track is one of the main
repatriation of the mortal remains. Ltd, said it was cooperating with local reasons for train accidents and derail-
The embassy is also in touch with the authorities and expressed condolences ments, the Railways has given special
remaining 20 injured crew members, for the crew member whose life was focus to this work. Accordingly, it spent
who are safe and receiving medical lost. The final destination for the ve- more than double levels between
attention. hicles is Singapore. 2014-15 and 2022-23 of Rs. 10,201
crore annually on track renewals
Rescue boats and helicopters were The 10-year-old ship, measuring about
used to get the 23 crew members off 200 meters (656 feet) in length, can against Rs. 4,702 crore better FY05
the ship after some had jumped in the carry as many as 4,000 cars. and FY14.
water.
Rs. 1.78 trillion spent on Claims settlement in
The authorities are now focusing their
efforts on preventing the listing ship rail safety in 9 yrs PMFBY to ease with timely
from sinking. A tugboat has been able Even as the Balasore train accident has subsidy deposit
to attach a rope to the Fremantle brought back focus on increased spend-
Highway and prevent it from drifting ing to ensure safety related budget of The Centre announced the delinking of
into shipping lanes. Other boats are on the government for past nine year its premium share with States' contribu-
standby to try to help pull the vessel shows that the national transporter has tion under crop insurance scheme for
to safety. been consistently upgrading its opera- faster claims settlement as farmers were
suffering despite paying their share of
The Panama-flagged cargo ship tions with technologies that significantly premium at the time of enrollment.
Fremantle Highway was en route to lowers the chances of any accidents.
Under the Prime Minister Fasal Bima
Port Said, Egypt, after a recent stop in In the nine-year period, Indian Rail-
the German port of Bremerhaven. The ways spent a staggering Rs. 178,012 Yojana (PMFBY), farmers pay a nominal
vessel was sailing 27 kilometers (17 crore on rail safety (including budget 2 per cent of the sum insured as pre-
miles) north of Ameland, one of the estimate for FY24) at an average an- mium in kharif season and 1.5 per cent
northern Wadden islands, when the nual spend of Rs. 17,801 crore. This is in rabi and 5 per cent for cash crops in
fire broke out. 2.5 times the safety spend of Railways both seasons. The remaining premium

The ship was carrying 2,857 cars, in- prior to 2014 when between 2004-205 amount, derived after tender for differ-
ent crops in different clusters, is shared
cluding 25 electric vehicles. One of the and 2013-14, about Rs. 70,000 crore at 50:50 by Centre and States.
EVs may have caught fire, and the was spent of rail safety at an annual
blaze could last for days. expense of Rs. 7,027 crore. Addressing an event to launch sepa-
rate portal and a mobile APP, Agricul-
PM crop insurance scheme: States can notify losses ture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar
due to wild animal attacks said that farmers were without their
fault waiting for claims payment for a
The Centre has allowed States to notify losses to crops due to wild animal long time despite paying their share of
attacks as an addon cover to the PM crop insurance scheme, according to premium. "Now we have decided that
Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Minister.
Centre will pay its share in time, even
Replying to a query on inclusion of crop loss due to attacks by wild animal if there is delay by States, so that
under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMBFY) in the Rajya Sabha, he claims can be settled, either fully or
said the scheme provides for comprehensive risk insurance against crop partially," Tomar said.
damage due to nonpreventable natural risks from presowing to postharvest
for the crops / areas notified by the State government concerned. Stating Last year, the Centre had mooted a
that the losses to crops due to wild animals being preventable in nature, he proposal for States and Centre to
said they were not covered. build a corpus where some portion of
premium subsidy could be deposited in
"However, at the request of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate the form of bank guarantee and in
Change and State governments, States have been allowed to notify the case of default, that BG can be
losses by wild animals on individual assessment as addon cover keeping in encashed. However, many states had
view requirement of the State at their own cost. Detailed protocol for cov- opposed the proposal, and finally it
erage has been given in the Operational Guidelines of the scheme," he said. was shelved. T

8 September 2023 The Insurance Times