Photo by Vinay Kumar
Chandigarh
2 March 2017
DIVYA AZAD
With a view to achieve target of 50% farmers to be covered under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) by 2019 more and more initiatives are being taken by insurers & the Government. 2016 -17 has been the year of lot of activities and the credit goes to Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, Haryana Government and various Insurers. According to Alok Agarwal, Executive Director, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd. “ICICI Lombard is having a great focus on Fasal Bima Yojana and we have decided to use combination of Physical reach (Feet on Street) & Digital Technology to reach the farmers located in 7 districts of Haryana to ensure maximum coverage of both loanee and non-loanee farmers in the Districts allotted to ICICI Lombard.
He further informed “In Haryana, ICICI Lombard has insured 1.8 lakh farmers for Kharif 2016 (mostly Paddy crop) & 1.3 lakh farmers for Rabi 2016 (mostly wheat crop) in seven districts of Palwal, Panipat, Rohtak, Fatehbad, Mewat, Jhajjar and Yamuna Nagar.
During the interaction we had with him in Chandigarh on March 2, 2017, Mr. Agarwal apprised us that ICICI Lombard is doing extremely well in rural business, where Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima is the major contributor. We are also informed that in addition to Haryana it is handling Fasal Bima Yojana in clusters of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh & Uttar Pradesh.
Mr. Alok Agarwal, Executive Director, ICICI Lombard General Insurance informed that number of farmers insured under Fasal Bima Yojana (Crop Insurance) has touched more than 39 Lakhs (Kharif/ Rabi combined and during 20172019 period this number will go up significantly )
Answering the question how ICICI Lombard plans to reach the farmers in villages in Haryana we are informed that “The Company is utilising various intermediaries to reach Crores of farmers by utilising the services of various banks ( ICICI , other Banks, Cooperative Banks/ Rural Banks/ Gramin Banks/), its own branches/ offices, Insurance Broker Firms, Agents, CSC (Common Service Centres) as well as POS. Objective is to reach to each and every farmer, who is residing in 7 districts allocated by Haryana Government to ICICI Lombard. We are putting special efforts to use local youngsters by creating jobs for them in their own villages.
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