Page 6 - The Insurance Times October 2021

of the bank," ICICI Bank said in a stock with party spokesman Sasmit manipulation of processes, and reduce
exchange filing. Patrasaying that claims amounting to delays in settlement of claims.
This follows the allotment of equity be more than Rs 1,000 crore of Odisha Initially, technological upgradation will
shares of ICICI Lombard to the eligible farmers have not been settled by the be voluntary, and this would soon be
insurance companies.
shareholders of Bharti AXA General made mandatory for all insurers, cre-
Insurance after the scheme of ar- "Lakhs of Odisha farmers across ating a new benchmark, said an offi-
rangement amongst Bharti AXA and Bargarh, Sambalpur, Sonepur, cial. The use of technology for claim
ICICI Lombard and their respective Deogarh, Bolangir, Nuapada and assessment is being pushed to diagnose
shareholders and creditors. Kalahandi districts are affected by the processes that are being manipulated,
PMFBY," Patra told media persons. leading to fraudulent claims in agricul-
ICICI Lombard had on September 8 in-
formed the stock exchanges that its He said till Kharif 2020, the total pre- tural as well as industrial insurance.
board has allotted 3.57 crore equity mium paid to insurance companies was
shares to shareholders of Bharti AXA. Rs 6163.28 crore while the payment by DICGC to engage CA firms
the insurance companies was Rs to complete depositor
Hero Insurance broking 5,098.64 crore. Thus, the insurance verification
companies profited to the tune of Rs
gets nod for risk, reinsur- 1,064.64 crore, he said. The Deposit Insurance and Credit
ance Between 2018 and 2020, farmers in Guarantee Corporation (DICGC) has
set in motion the process of engaging
Hero Insurance Broking India has ac- Odisha filed crop insurance claims of Rs Chartered Accountant (CA) firms to
2,090 crore but insurance companies
quired a composite broking licence complete the Herculean task of verifi-
from the IRDAI which will allow the paid less than half of these claims, at cation/ certification of claims list and
Rs 1,026 crore, said Patra. "Farmers
firm to offer reinsurance broking and books of records of about 55 insured
risk management consultancy services are facing repeated harassment by the urban co-operative banks (UCBs),
insurance companies related to their
to corporate clients, Hero Enterprise which are currently under the Reserve
chairman Sunil Munjal told. assessment of the claims and payments Bank of India’s All Inclusive Direction
under PMFBY," he said. Patra said it is
The firm, a wholly-owned subsidiary of high time the Union government rec- (AID).
Hero Corporate Service, has been in tified these issues and helped the farm- This is aimed at ensuring that the first
the Indian insurance market since ers in times of distress. list of depositors get paid by the cor-
2005, first as an agency and then as a "The government should use new tech- poration within the stipulated time
direct broker since 2018. With its new frame of 90 days from the date (Sep-
nology such as drones to clear assess-
composite licence, which IRDAI ap- tember 1, 2021) when the provisions
ment of claims expeditiously and allow
proved in June, the firm is now also only government insurance companies of the Deposit Insurance and Credit
planning to enter specialised corporate Guarantee Corporation (Amendment)
to undertake PMFBY in order to safe-
lines of insurance such as manufactur- guard the interest of the farmers," he Act, 2021 came into force.
ing and employee benefits. said. The DICGC Act was amended last
"From an agency, we converted in month with a provision in Section 18A
2018 to a brokerage where we de- Drone use, satellite imag- allowing depositors access to up to ?5
cided that instead of representing in- lakh within 90 days of a bank being
surance companies, we'll represent ery for farm insurance may placed under moratorium/ AID.
customers," Munjal said. be a must So, depositors of UCBs such as Punjab
Use of drones and satellite imaging & Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC)
Over Rs. 1,000-crore PM could be made mandatory for insurers Bank (Mumbai), Sri Guru Raghavendra
Crop Insurance dues not to keep a check on fraudulent and Sahakara Bank (Bengaluru), Rupee Co-
false insurance claims. For this, the operative Bank (Pune) and Kapol Co-
paid, says BJD Centre and the Insurance Regulatory operative Bank (Mumbai) can hope to
Biju Janata Dal raised the issue of non- and Development Authority of India receive payments up to the insured
settlement of claims under Pradhan are in discussions to adopt artificial in- deposit amount of Rs. 5 lakh on or be-
Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), telligence and big data to identify fore November 29, 2021.

6 The Insurance Times, October 2021