Page 5 - Insurance Times March 2016 Sample

General Insurance



50% farmers should be covered under crop insurance Global insurance indus-
ambit
try not keen in cyber in-
The PM in his monthly programme schemes. "Can we take a pledge that
over radio 'Mann Ki Baat' has pitched we should connect at least 50% of surance policy
for expanding the base of the recently farmers to this scheme in two years? I
announced crop insurance scheme un- need this help from you. Because if a The global insurance industry is un-
der 'Start-Up India' so that at least farmer joins the scheme, he will get willing to
50% of farmers were covered under it huge help during a natural calamity," write cyber
in two years. He also highlighted ben- he said. insurance
efits of the scheme where farmers will policies as of
have to pay very low premium. In his nearly 30-minute broadcast, now. Firms
Modi also talked about cleanliness and are looking
He said there was talk regarding crop beautification efforts being made in
insurance for so many years but "not the country as also the upcoming for US $1 billion covers, but the in-
more than 20-25%" of India's farmers South Asian Games to be held in surers are not interested.
were able to benefit from such Guwahati.
Cyber insurers face a situation of in-
General insurance premiums not increasing due to fall- formation irregularity. There are
none or very limited actuarial insights
ing reinsurance available. The task for insurers is
made even more difficult by the fact
Reinsurance premium rates are ex- K. Sanath Kumar, Chairman and MD, that attacks may not be aimed at a
big firm directly. No insurer has a
pected to decline this year rather than General Insurance Corporation said, clue as to what hidden vulnerabilities
exist in a company's IT set-up - soft-
increase as there have reinsurance rates would ware, websites, network, data cen-
tres and processes.
been no major catastro- remain soft this year as
phes and falling global re- the last year had been Further, insurers also need to take
insurance rates globally. It benign in terms of major into account that one lives in the days
is also due to overcapacity catastrophes globally. This of internet-linked business ecosys-
in terms of capital in the could lead to a decline in tems which include multiple partners
market, according to industry experts. rates when the reinsurance contracts and suppliers of various sorts, apart
This is despite India recording high eco- for Indian general insurers come up for from outsourced software develop-
nomic losses due to the Chennai floods, renewals in April. ment. Smaller, less prepared, less
which had a Rs. 3,000-crore impact on equipped members of ecosystems
the general insurance industry. G. Srinivasan, Chairman and Managing offer hackers an easier route to
Director of New India Assurance also sneak into the systems of big firms.
According to Aon Benfield, leading said that he does not anticipate a hard- Attackers are remotely located, face
treaty reinsurance broker, for 2015 ening in reinsurance rates despite high no direct or immediate physical
global reinsurance capacity was about catastrophe losses in the Indian mar- threat and are unafraid to take risks.
$565 billion, with alternative capital ket. This is due to the fall in re-insur-
making up about 12 per. ance rates globally.

The Insurance Times, March 2016 5