Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar launched National Crop Insurance Portal’s digitized claim settlement module namely DigiClaim under the ambit of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) today at Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi. With the launch of the module, claims will be disbursed electronically, which will benefit the respective farmers of six states. Now, the automated claim settlement process will be an ongoing activity to ease all insured farmers' lives and provide them with a sustainable financial flow and support.

Besides Shri Tomar, Union Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Shri Kailash Choudhary, Agriculture Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Union Agriculture Secretary Shri Manoj Ahuja, CEO, PMFBY Shri Ritesh Chauhan and other senior officials were also present. CMDs of Agriculture Insurance Company of India Ltd and SBI General Insurance were also present including representatives of National Insurance Company (NIC), HDFC Ergo, Bajaj Allianz, Reliance GIC, ICICI Lombard, Future Generali, IFFCO Tokio, Cholamandlam MS, Universal Sompo and TATA AIG. Representatives from SBI Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Yes Bank were also present at the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Tomar said that it is a matter of pride for our Ministry to have taken a revolutionary step in ensuring that farmers can receive claim amounts digitally in a timebound and automated manner, thereby making our farmers Aatmanirbhar and Sashakt.

With the launch of a DigiClaim Module, insurance claims totaling Rs 1260.35 crore have been disbursed on March 23, 2023 to insured farmers in the states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Haryana with the click of a button, and the process will continue as and when the claims are released. The Union Minister also mentioned that till date Rs 1.32 lakh crore claim amount has been disbursed to the insured farmers under PMFBY. He also took special note of ‘Meri Policy, Mere Haath’ ongoing campaign and observed that the campaign has been monumental in enhancing the awareness around PMFBY at the grassroot levels.

While speaking on the occasion, Shri Tomar said that the Government of India is closely working with all exited states from the scheme and have had discussions with their senior officials in which Andhra Pradesh and Punjab are making a comeback to the scheme, which shows a shining example of corporative federalism. Governments of Telangana, Gujarat, Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand have also been approached to rejoin PMFBY and several discussions have been underway. Out of these states, Telangana and Jharkhand have indicated their willingness to come back under PMFBY.

In the current system, there have been several instances of insured farmers' claims being delayed due to a variety of factors. Taking cognizance of farmers’ welfare and to expedite the claim disbursal process of valid crop loss claims, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare has come up with the DigiClaim Module. With this, now farmers’ claims will be processed directly to their respective bank accounts in a transparent and accountable manner. This technology has been enabled through the integration of National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) and Public Finance Management System (PFMS).

This would directly impact the claim reversal ratio, which is expected to go down with DigiClaim. Another noteworthy feature of this digital advancement is that farmers would be able to track the claim settlement process on their mobile phones in real-time and avail the scheme’s benefits.

Shri Manoj Ahuja highlighted several other prolific achievements of PMFBY to mark the scheme's seventh year of conception under visionary leadership of the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. The Union Secretary also appealed to state governments to show their participation in this endeavour by timely uploading yield data onto the crop insurance portal and releasing the states’ share on time so that claims could be transferred to farmers’ bank accounts in a hassle-free manner, assisting the Ministry in achieving its true purpose of developing this technology.

Agriculture Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Shri Surya Pratap Shahi, who joined the launch via video conferencing, also gave his valuable suggestions for better implementation of the scheme.

This technological advancement has taken PMFBY one step further towards modernization of the scheme. This falls in line with PM Modi’s vision of making India a digital powerhouse with more and more technology-driven innovations paving Ease of Living for the farmers.

In the era of rapid innovations, Digitization and Technology are playing a significant role in scaling up the reach and operations of PMFBY with precision agriculture. In last few years, various innovative technologies have been piloted and integrated with the scheme to make the process of yield estimation and crop loss assessment more accurate, like Yes-Tech, WINDS and CROPIC. Further, for timely redressal of farmers' grievances, Farmer Grievance Portal has been launched in the first phase for the state of Chhattisgarh, which has received a plethora of positive response and in the second phase, it will be implemented in the entire country.

DigiClaim is yet another feather in PMFBY's cap in its ongoing effort to usher in advanced technological solutions such as automated calculation and disbursement of crop insurance claims.

****

SNC/PK