The Hindu Business Line : Megatop ties up with UK fund to offer insurance to farmers in AP, M.P.

AIMED at providing integrated financial services to the farmers through the e-choupals network of ITC, Megatop Insurance Services Ltd (MISL), an associate company of ITC Ltd, has signed a contract with the Financial Deepening Challenge Fund (FDCF), sponsored by the UK-based Department for International Development (DfID).

In a press release here on Wednesday, Megatop announced that under the contract, it would create awareness about insurance and provide best possible insurance services to the farmers at their doorstep in the villages of Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh through ITC's existing e-choupals.

According to the release, FDCF would provide a grant of Rs 5.8 crore over a period of three years and enable the ITC arm to reach out to serve these farmers. This is said to be the largest project of FDCF in the country.

The e-choupal network of ITC is a movement that enables the transformation of traditional farmers into new age marketers. The network helps farmers readily check both futures prices across the globe and local prices before going to the market, access to local weather conditions, soil-testing techniques etc.

The FDCF is the British Government's initiative aimed at developing public-private partnerships that benefit the poor. The DFID had unveiled the initiative in Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in July 2001. The fund has a corpus of £20-million and is currently working in 15 countries in South Asia and Africa.

Commenting on the development, the Megatop Director, Mr C.V. Sarma, said: "This grant will help us provide the best possible insurance services to rural customers and become the most preferred choice for farmers in rural India. We aim to be the largest insurance provider in India with major customer base in rural markets."

The FDCF Global Fund Manager, Mr Garry Whitby, who signed the contract in Hyderabad on behalf of DFID, said: "We believe this is a step in the right direction as e-choupals would be the supermarkets of tomorrow in rural India."

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