Page 6 - Insurance Times April 2022

Poddar, Managing Director and Chair- underwriting policy will be undertaken extensive integration of artificial intel-
man, Agricultural Insurance Company. based on future developments. ligence (AI) based technology with the
The fortnight-long celebrations will "In view of the prevailing situation, traffic management system to remove
also include other key events at vari- ECGC carried out a review of the coun- human interference and the possibility
ous locations such as a facilitation try risk rating of Russia as per its ex- of errors.
programme titled 'Decoding the tant underwriting policy. Accordingly, "Road safety is a major concern across
Flavoured Profiles of International Cui- with effect from 25.02.2022, the cover the world and has become a challenge
sines' in association with the Institute category of Russia has been modified for the developing countries like In-
of Hotel Management, Catering and from Open Cover to Restricted Cover dia," the road transport and highways
Nutrition (IHM), Pusa for the benefit of Category - I (RCC-I) for which revolving minister said.
spice exporters on March 3. limits (normally valid for a year) are Gadkari pointed out that road safety
approved specifically on a case-to-case is the topmost priority of the govern-
Insurance cover category basis," said the statement. ment as India accounts for 5 lakhs road
for Indian exports to Rus- ECGC coverage with- accidents annually in which about 1.5
lakh people die.
sia modified drawal a huge setback "The AI-based drones and robots can
As the Russia-Ukraine conflict intensi- The Export Credit Guarantee Corpora- be used for forensic level investigation
fies, raising concerns among Indian tion (ECGC) has decided to withdraw of road accidents," he said.
exporters, the Export Credit Guaran- coverage for shipments to Russia with
tee Corporation of India (ECGC) clari- effect from February 25, which is a According to Gadkari, traffic conges-
fied coverage on export transactions huge setback for exporters, industry tions are caused due to unbalanced
to Moscow has not been withdrawn. body FIEO said. demand-supply calculations.
It further said that it has only changed "With the help of AI-based tools, we
Amid the ongoing conflict between
the cover category for the country can accurately measure, analyse and
from 'Open Cover' to 'Restricted Cover Russia and Ukraine, ECGC in a commu- predict traffic conditions and can take
nication said "based on the near-term
Category - I' (RCC-I), under which re- necessary steps to avoid the occur-
volving limits (normally valid for a year) commercial outlook, it has been de- rence of incidents," he said.
are approved specifically on a case-to- cided to modify the country risk classi- The minister said an advanced traffic
case basis. fication of Russia under the short-term
and medium-and-long term with effect management system is deployed on
The change came into effect on 25 from February 25." the Indian highways network, and it
February, 2022, said a statement from facilitates integrated data collection
Revising its underwriting policy on Rus-
the Ministry of Commerce and Indus- through electronic sensors and high
sia, ECGC, a government-owned entity,
try. definition cameras.
has now put that country in the Re-
It said that change has been made to stricted Cover Category (RCC-I) from
ensure that ECGC is able to assess and the earlier 'open cover' category. Motor third-party premi-
monitor the risks covered under its ums to be revised after 2
export credit insurance policies and to Road safety a major chal-
place appropriate risk mitigation mea- years
sures. lenge for developing The ministry of road transport and
The move is expected to enable the countries: Gadkari highways in consultation with the in-

exporters and banks in India in assess- Road safety has become a challenge for surance regulator released a draft no-
ing the export payment realisation developing countries like India, and tification for revising the motor third
prospects from buyers and banks in artificial intelligence-based drones and party premium rates for the financial
Russia. robots can be used for forensic investi- year 2023.
gation of road accidents, Union minis- The proposed revision in motor third
The ministry has advised customers to
contact their servicing branch of ECGC ter Nitin Gadkari said. party premiums will take place after
for cover on shipments to Russia. It Addressing a conference on 'Machine two years as the premium rates were
added that ECGC continues to monitor Vision and Augmented Intelligence', not revised for FY21 and FY22 because
the situation and further review of the Gadkari further said there is a need for of the pandemic.

6 The Insurance Times, April 2022