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ANNUAL REPORT 2011-12
been piloted across India as an alternative to NAIS.
WBCIS was implemented by AIC in 14 States in Kharif
2011 and in 13 States in Rabi 2011-12, covering more
than 35 different crops.
I.4.10.6 WBCIS intends to provide insurance protection
to farmers against adverse weather incidence, such
as deficit and excess rainfall, long dry spells,
fluctuations in minimum and/or maximum temperature,
relative humidity, wind speed, etc., which impact crop
production adversely. The scheme has the in-built
advantage of processing claims within a short time of
occurrence of the adverse weather incidents. WBCIS
is based on actuarial rates of premium, but to make
the Scheme attractive, premium actually charged from
farmers in respect of food and oilseed crops is capped
“at par” with NAIS, and for annual commercial and
horticultural crops, the same has been capped at 6 per
cent. AIC insured about 75.96 lakh hectares of
cultivable land in respect of 52.63 lakh farmers for a
sum insured of `8,341 crore, earning a premium of
`837 crore during Kharif 2011 and about 38.49 lakh
hectares of land sown by about 31.10 lakh farmers for
a sum insured of `6,684 crore, for a premium of `564
crore during Rabi 2011-12. WBCIS, during 2011-12,
accounted for 54 per cent of the AIC’s gross premium
of `2,577 crore.
I.4.10.7 Apart from the above, some private insurers
have started pricing weather insurance products and
have started covering crops as well as other weather
related risks, such as, fl ights cancellation due to bad
weather, etc. This is a new type of product in the Indian
market and the experience will unfold in the coming
time. The Authority will examine the performance of
these products at regular intervals so as to take any
further steps, if required.
Remote Sensing-Based Information and Insurance
for Crops in Emerging Economies (RIICE)
I.4.10.8 The Remote Sensing Based Information and
Insurance for Crops in Emerging Economies (RIICE)
uses Synthetic Aperture Radar technology to gather
data related to rice yield and design effective risk
management solutions to support index-based crop
insurance products. AIC is partnering RIICE project
with German International Cooperative (GIZ), Allianz
Re, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI),
Philippines, and Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.
The project is to commence during 2012-13. This would
help to move from the manual Crop Cutting Experience
based yield estimation to technology based yield
estimation, and thus, would improve the accuracy of
yield estimation as well as provide for faster settlement
of claims.
Terrestrial Observation and Prediction system
(TOPS)
I.4.10.9 The TOPS technology developed by National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
scientists, integrates surface weather, satellite data
with empirical/mechanistic models to monitor and
predict crop growth profi les, crop stress and yields. In
order to generate village level historical weather data
of past 15 years as well as future three years, AIC
commissioned a pilot in Maharashtra. This data is
expected to assist AIC in fine-tuning the WBCIS
products, as also in minimizing the basic risk. If found
feasible, the TOPS could be used to supplement/
complement with the existing weather station network
and in minimising, the investment in setting up weather
stations.
Crop Yield Audit Systems (CYAS)
I.4.10.10 Currently, more than 12 lakh Crop Cutting
Experiments are conducted by AIC every season to
collect crop yield data used for both policy purpose
and insurance purpose. AIC with the assistance from
the World Bank has started a pilot to use GPS enabled
cellular phones to geo-tag, time-stamp, record, and
transmit the data on real-time basis. The pilot
commenced with deployment of 50 cellular phones in
Maharashtra for Rabi 2010-11 season. The project is
expected to (i) create and implement centralized data
management system to accept incoming data for all
States; (ii) develop formal data monitoring, auditing,
and cleaning techniques; and (iii) provide data to
insurance providers and Government in a standard
format as appropriate.
I.4.11 MICRO INSURANCE
I.4.11.1 In order to facilitate penetration of micro
insurance to the lower income segments, IRDA has
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