India

Overview

The seventh largest and most populous country in the world, India is also the country with the third highest disaster risk. Climate change is increasing the incidence and severity of flooding, drought, tsunamis and cyclones, and much of the country is also prone to earthquakes. Insurance and risk finance can help manage these risks.
UNDP’s Insurance and Risk Finance Facility is working with government and industry partners to integrate insurance and risk finance into development programmes and to support financial resilience for vulnerable groups in India.

Main Natural Hazards

Flood, Earthquake, Tsunami, Cyclone, Drought

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Source:

https://drmkc.jrc.ec.europa.eu/inform-index/INFORM-Risk/Country-Risk-Profile}

Insurance penetration

3.8% (2023)

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Source:

https://www.swissre.com/institute/research/topics-and-risk-dialogues/economy-and-insurance-outlook/india-insura}

Number of insurance providers

24 life insurance companies, 26 general insurance companies, 5 health insurance companies and 12 reinsurers

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Source:

https://www.investindia.gov.in/sector/bfsi-insurance}

% Workforce engaged in agriculture

43% (2022)

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Source:

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.AGR.EMPL.ZS}

Multidimensional poverty

16.4% (2019/2021)

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Source:

https://hdr.undp.org/system/files/documents/hdp-document/2023mpireporten.pdf}

% of population covered by inclusive insurance products

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Source:
The Microinsurance Network, Landscape of Microinsurance 2023, Based on target population estimate for India of 1,261,078,736 people
https://microinsurancenetwork.org/resources/the-landscape-of-microinsurance-2023}

Biodiversity ranking

#8 out of 239 countries and territories (2023)

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Source:

https://worldrainforests.com/03highest_biodiversity.htm}

Small business % contribution to workforce

c. 30% of total employment (2023)

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Source:

https://researchgate.net/publication/372227655_Role_of_Micro_Small_and_Medium_Enterprises_MSME_in_Employment_Generation_in_India}

Our projects

Supporting financial resilience in agriculture
Working with government and industry, the Financial Resilience in Agriculture (FRA) Initiative, powered by a partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is boosting smallholder farmers’ financial resilience and accelerating their adaptation to climate change.
FRA is developing an innovative agricultural insurance programme in India that provides financial protection and incentivizes smallholder farmers’ uptake of adaptive techniques and technologies.
India is also a member of the FRA Community of Practice (CoP) – a long-term peer-to-peer platform that focuses on how countries and partners can learn new and best practice for financial resilience for smallholder farmers.

Learn More
UNDP is working with India’s government to design a Natural Catastrophe Risk Insurance Pool (NCP) that can act as a comprehensive and self-sustained solution for disaster risk financing, providing financial protection to affected people, reducing the government’s fiscal burden by diversifying and transferring disaster risk, and incentivizing disaster risk reduction.
UNDP is also providing tailored support to India’s government, in cooperation with Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), to improve the enabling environment for insurance market development and integrate insurance and risk financing into national development frameworks.