Page 7 - Insurance Times February 2016
P. 7
Property and catastro- New Apps about crop insurance for farmers
phe insurance premiums The government has launched two Radha Mohan Singh said. They will also
mobile phone applications that will help to get information regarding nor-
to shoot up in 2016 enable farmers to get information re- mal sum insured, extended sum in-
lated to crop insurance and prices of sured and subsidy information of any
Rising incidents of natural catastro- agri-commodities in different
phes, such as cyclones and floods, mandis across the country. notified crop in any notified
area.
could lead
to a jump The AgriMarket Mobile App Farmers can get information
in prop- and Crop Insurance Mobile related to prices of crops in
erty and App have been developed by markets within 50 km of
catastro- the in-house IT division of the their own device location us-
phe insur- Agriculture Ministry and can be down- ing the AgriMarket Mobile App, he
ance premiums in 2016, say industry loaded from Google Store or mKisan said. This app automatically captures
experts. According to industry esti- portal. the location of the farmers using mo-
mates, insurers are likely to face bile GPS and fetches the market prices
losses of around Rs 2,500 crore from Farmers can get information related to of crops in markets which fall within the
the recent Chennai floods. crop insurance cover available, and range of 50 km. Currently, these apps
also calculate the premium for notified are available in English and Hindi lan-
Incidentally, in 2014, India witnessed crops based on area, coverage amount guages.
the world's largest and third-largest and loan amount, Agriculture Minister
catastrophes - Cyclone Hudhud and
the Kashmir floods, respectively - in Maharashtra, TN collects most premiums, K'taka 3rd
terms of overall damage and losses
estimated at Rs 5,000 crore. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have in terms of general insurance penetra-
preserved their top two positions in tion. Karnataka registered 0.98 per
Industry officials say that premium terms of general insurance premium cent against Gujarat's 0.71 per cent.
rates on property insurance declined collection and penetration, while
as much as 80 per cent during the Karnataka has replaced Gujarat at the "Gujarat is an industrial State. Still, it
last five years due to pricing war third place in fiscal 2014- is due to the relative positioning de-
among insurers. However, in 2016, 15.
this trend will reverse. pendant on the various as-
According to the data from pects of product sales," ICICI
As part of mega policies, insurers, GIC, Maharashtra was at Lombard General Insurance
apart from fire, cover big industrial the top with total premium chief for underwriting and
assets against business disruptions. collection of Rs. 19,336 crore and in- claims Sanjay Datta said.
These policies are primarily reinsur- surance penetration of 1.15 per cent.
ance-driven as insurance companies Tamil Nadu was second with premium "In Karnataka, motor and health have
pass on part of their risk to re-insur- collection of Rs. 8,238 crore while in- shown better growth on the premium
ers to mitigate risks associated with surance penetration was at 0.84 per collection than Gujarat during FY15
severe losses. cent. and hence, it has improved positioning
in the ranking," General Insurance
However, with major foreign re-in- Karnataka toppled Gujarat in 2014-15 Council secretary general R.
surers now planning to open Chandrasekaran told.
branches in India, there will be an
alignment between the re-insurers PSU general insurers outpaced private players in pre-
to ensure that there is an upward
correction in property insurance mium collection
prices, Sanath Kumar, Chairman and
Managing Director of GIC Re said. State-owned general insurers led by New India Assurance have outpaced their
peers in private sector in premium collection, though marginally, by recording
12 per cent growth in the first nine months of the current fiscal.
All the four state-owned non-life insurers - New India Assurance, Oriental, United
and National - mobilised a total premium of Rs 35,000 crore in nine months to
December 2015 against Rs 31,300 crore during the first nine months of previ-
ous fiscal, data collated by industry body General Insurance Council showed.
The Insurance Times, February 2016 7
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