Page 5 - Insurance Times August 2021

General Insurance

News

SBI General Insurance to Cyclone 'Yaas', packing winds of up to The decision to infuse equity in ECGC
130-145 kmph, whiplashed the over five years to boost export insur-
use drones for fast claim country's eastern coasts on Wednes- ance cover by Rs. 88,000 crore, an-
settlement in cyclone-hit day, dumping heavy rain, damaging nounced by Finance Minister Nirmala
states houses and farmlands, and leaving at Sitharaman, would certainly benefit
least four persons dead - three in exporters as there will be higher lever-
SBI General Insurance said it will use Odisha and one in West Bengal. age for banks towards export finance,
drones to carry out surveys and assess said Rakesh Kumar, an exporter of
damage caused by cyclone 'Yaas' in Niti Aayog recommends handicrafts and Director General of the
parts of Odisha, West Bengal and Export Promotion Council for Handi-
Jharkhand in a bid to speed up the claim privatization of UIIC crafts. "As the coverage for exporter
settlement process for its customers The NITI Aayog has recommended under ECGC would increase, it would
affected by the natural disaster. privatisation of state-owned insurer
United India Insurance Company as the encourage many more exporters to
The insurer has also set up a task force avail of the services of ECGC and miti-
to manage queries and claims on a government aims to move ahead with gate their risk," he said.
its new public sector enterprise (PSE)
fast-track mode, a company official ECGC promotes exports by providing
said. policy for Atmanirbhar Bharat. The
policy think tank has suggested that credit insurance services and support
"The company has reached out to a the public sector insurer be considered around 30 per cent of India's merchan-
panel of surveyors to avoid any loss of for privatisation in the banking, insur- dise exports.
time in the claim settlement process," ance and financial services sector, While the ECGC has, at present, been
he said. which has been classified as 'strategic' managing to provide facility to all ex-
The team at SBI General has set a in the PSE policy, said an official. porters, augmenting the funding is a
standard operating process in motion, welcome move and shows positivity for
and instant settlement will be done for Infusing equity in ECGC the future, said Sanjay Jain, Chairman,
small claims, he said. cover will benefit the sec- Confederation of Indian Textile Industry.
Additionally, the insurer follows a pro- tor "In the long term, as the ECGC gets
cess of fast- track settlement for losses better capitalised, it can provide more
of up to Rs. 10 lakhs, the official said. The government's decision to boost support to the exporters as their need
export insurance cover by infusing eq-
"These initiatives will help claim pro- uity in Export Credit Guarantee Corpo- for insurance increases," Jain explained.
cessing and settlement in the cyclone- ration (ECGC) and providing additional The planned infusion of additional eq-
affected areas in West Bengal and corpus to the National Export Insur- uity will make ECGC stronger and in-
Odisha," he said. ance Account (NEIA) for project ex- crease exports, if the scheme starts

Most of the damage has been reported ports over the next five years would covering risky importers also, said
in coastal villages and farmlands, the help ease liquidity crunch and mitigate Anupam Shah, an engineering goods
official said. risks, say exporters. exporter.
The Insurance Times, August 2021 5