Common Service Centres (CSCs), falling under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, have started offering crop insurance scheme to small and marginal farmers who have not availed any loan from any bank or financial institution. The initiative was launched in June and will cover only 'non-loanee' farmers, CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd CEO Dinesh Tyagi said. Most of the premium for crop insurance will be paid by central and state government while farmers will have to pay just 1.5-3% of the premium amount. The crop insurance, which provides a cover of around Rs 100,000 for one agricultural season, is being provided under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana which was launched in 2016. "Farmers who do not have access to traditional way of credit and banks will benefit from this scheme. CSCs have rural centres across India and we can reach out to small and marginal farmers easily and premium amount is highly subsidised. The process has been quite simplified through online manner," Tyagi said. Farmers who avail loan from banks already get insurance for their crops from the banks. Only companies which have been empanelled by the government and authorised agents can sell crop insurance, but for CSCs, an exemption has been made and every CSC can solicit customers for crop insurance. For 2017-18 crop year (July-June), the government has empanelled 13 insurance firms. Crop insurance will cover losses due to prevented sowing/planting risk - because of deficit rainfall or adverse seasonal conditions. Besides, comprehensive risk insurance is provided to cover yield losses due to non-preventable risks -- drought, dry spells, flood, pests and diseases, landslides, natural fire, storm among others. There are over 250,000 CSCs across the country, of which 150,000 are rural and the rest are in urban areas. CSCs enable people to access government services online such as train tickets, birth certificates, online submission of various forms and bills. CSCs are an important part of government's Digital India initiative to function as a single access point for delivery of services electronically including passport and Aadhaar enrolment. On Tuesday, Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad said at an event that CSCs have given employment to 10 lakh people in India, and in the near future, one crore people will work in CSCs. "I have great expectation from CSC VLEs (village-level entrepreneurs). Our VLEs are change-makers of India. CSCs have given employment to 10 lakh people in India. I am confident that in the near future, one crore people will work in CSCs," Prasad said. Source - http://www.dnaindia.com