Weather Information Network and Data System (WINDS) is an initiative of Government aimed at developing a national level network of Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) and Automatic Rain Gauges (ARGs) for generation of long term hyperlocal weather data for crop insurance, agriculture advisories and disaster risk resilience needs of different sectors. WINDS has been adopted by 7 States/UTs (Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Odisha, Puducherry, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand) wherein as on date, 16,843 sites have been approved for installation, civil work has been completed in 1,188 site and 892 AWS/ ARGs have been installed.    

The PMFBY envisages adoption of improved technology in implementation of the scheme. Accordingly, Yield Estimation System based on Technology (YES-TECH) is being implemented with effect from Kharif 2023 for objective crop damage, loss assessment. YES-TECH envisages gradual migration to remote sensing based yield estimation to help in fair and accurate crop yield estimation. The initiative has been launched for paddy and wheat crops wef Kharif 2023 and for Soybean crop wef Kharif 2024 season wherein mandatory 30% weightage to yield estimation has been assigned to YES-TECH derived yield.

YES-TECH was implemented in 12 States across 344 Districts in 2025-26. Further, State Government of Madhya Pradesh has given 100% weightage to technology based yield, whereas State Governments of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh has given 50% weightage while Odisha and Karnataka State Governments have given 40% weightage to YES-TECH based yield in 2025-26.

Government has a mechanism of rigorous review with stakeholders on effective YES-TECH implementation.

Following steps have been taken by Govt. of India to for timely settlement of claims under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana:

• Government has undertaken development of National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) as a single source of data for subsidy payment, dissemination of information,  delivery of services including online enrollment of farmers, uploading/obtaining individual insured famer’s details and transfer of claim amount electronically to the individual farmer’s Bank Account. 
• In order to rigorously monitor claim disbursal process, a dedicated module namely ‘Digiclaim Module’ has been operationalized for payment of claims from Kharif 2022 onwards.  It involves integration of National Crop Insurance Portal (NCIP) with Public Finance Management System (PFMS) and accounting system of Insurance Companies to provide timely & transparent processing of all claims.
• W.e.f. Kharif 2024, in case payment is not made timely by Insurance Company, penalty.of 12% is auto-calculated and levied through NCIP.  
• Delinking of Central Government share of premium subsidy from that of State Governments has been implemented so that farmers can get proportionate claims relating to the Central Government share.
• 12% penalty is also levied from Kharif 2025 on State Government for delay in release of State share of subsidy.
• Opening of ESCROW Account by the State Government concerned for deposit of their premium share in advance as per provisions of the scheme has been made mandatory w.e.f. Kharif 2025 season for bringing financial discipline. 
• Also, towards leveraging technology in implementation of the scheme, various steps like capturing of yield data/Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) data through CCE-Agri App & uploading it on the NCIP, allowing insurance companies to witness the conduct of CCEs, integration of State land records with NCIP and usage of remote sensing based yield estimation through YES-TECH have already been taken to improve timely settlement of the claims to farmers.
• Crop Loss Assessment App (CLAP), developed as a digital mobile application to streamline and improve the efficiency of crop loss assessments for loacalised calamities/post harvest losses for individual farms and  land parcels under PMFBY.  The use of CLAP has been made mandatory for all the States/UTs under the scheme.

This information was given by the Union Minister of state for Agriculture and Farmers welfare, SHRI  RAMNATH THAKUR in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

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