ABSTRACT
Due to the combination of high exposure to natural hazards and a rapidly developing economy, leading to quick urban growth with high vulnerability, India experiences significant economic losses caused by disasters. While disaster insurance for large business enterprises is available and utilized, a vast majority of micro-enterprises – a significant sector of urban economies – lacks information and access to such products. India’s Finance Minister said in his 2014–2015 budget speech that ‘a large proportion of India’s population is without insurance of any kind – health, accidental or life’ (Jaitely, 2015). According to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) of India, insurance penetration (the premium collected by Indian insurers) was only 3.96 percent of GDP in the financial year 2012–2013 and per capita premium underwritten (insurance density) in India during FY 2012–2013 was US$53.2 (IRDA, 2013–2014). Indeed, ‘insurance penetration has grown from 2.3 percent (1.8 percent life and 0.7 percent non-life) in 2000 to 3.9 percent (3.1 percent life and 0.8 percent non-life) in 2013 (Economic Survey of India, 2015: 48). This progress is relatively small in terms of the available opportunities and need in the country.
