ICICI Lombard to expand its presence in rural sector

Lombard plans to expand its presence in the rural sector across the country with a focus on weather and cattle insurance, a top company official said. "We plan to increase our rural market share to 11 per cent in FY 08 from 8 per cent last year. We are hopeful of collecting a premium of Rs 540 crore in FY 08 from Rs 230 crore last year," ICICI Lombard's Head, Rural and Agriculture Business, Pranav Prashad, told the media. "We have charted out a concerted plan to strengthen our reach across rural India and offer insurance products like weather insurance, cattle insurance, health and personal accident insurance," Prashad said. The company plans to expand by activating rural marketing channels across 800 towns, which include rural marketing agents and chains of rural retail outlets. "ICICI Lombard has a range of insurance products designed specially for the rural and agricultural segment with cost effective distribution mechanisms and equally robust processes for claims servicing," Prashad said. The company in conjunction with the World Bank-pioneered weather insurance in the country to cover vagaries of the weather for a wide variety of crops to farmers. The claim settlement of weather insurance are determined by objective data capture by independent weather stations. – www.economictimes.com