Vice President Urges to Develop Sustainable Agri-Insurance Products.

MUMBAI: To help rural India, Vice President Hamid Ansari called upon insurance companies, to develop sustainable agri-insurance products.

Speaking at the concluding ceremony of the Insurance Institute of India's (III) diamond jubilee celebrations here, Mr Ansari said, "It is necessary to protect farmers from the vagaries of nature and ensure that they are eligible to seek access to credit. The high suicide rate of farmers and subsequent social and economic impact on their family’s needs to be redressed".

Mr Ansari said that presently, crop insurance covers only about 12 per cent of sown area, which in most cases have an adverse claims-to-premium ratio and there are problems with both the design and delivery of crop insurance schemes and called for reducing premium rates to make insurance schemes attractive and affordable.

Also he said "Despite its growth, insurance penetration remains abysmally low. Insurance penetration or premium volume as ratio of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), for the year 2012-13 stood at 3.96 per cent, which is much below the world average of 6.3 per cent."