In a movement that can take social security through insurance to the countryside, insurance regulations and development authority of India (IRDAI) has instructed insurers to cover 75,000 grams of Panchayats over the next two years as part of rural, social sector and motor third parties.
The mandatory coverage of the specified number of Panchayats applies to all life, general and health insurers, including stand-alone health insurance companies.
In the current financial year of 2025-26, 25,000 villages must be covered by each of the insurers. In the following financial year, the number has doubled and insurers will have to cover 50,000 panchayats.
The minimum percentage of the lives (health over, vehicles and assets in the case of non-life) to be covered in a gram panchayat is set at 15 percent for all life, general and stand-alone health insurers for the current financial year.
Before 2026-27 it will be 25 percent for the Gram Panchayats that are assigned in FY26 and 10 percent for the newly added grams of panchayats during the year, Irdai said in a master circular on national, social sector and motor third parties, 2025.
Both Life Insurance Council and General Insurance Council would identify the parameters, such as market share or another parameter to reach the minimum number of grams of panchayats that must be assigned to every insurer. They also determine the minimum number of the Panchayats gram to be assigned insurer, said Suresh Nair, general director-not-life.
Directory of the local government of the Ministry of Panchayati RAJ is an online platform for the States/UTs to maintain the up-to-date list of respective administrative units. The councils can map DistrictSpanchat-Dorp code of the local government directory of the Ministry of Panchayati RAJ and share the same with all insurers for the identification of national sector activities at insurance level.
The national, social and motor third standards were first published by Irdai in 2024, where it asked the Life General and the independent insurers to follow the guidelines prescribed by the Life and General Insurance Council for 2024-25, including the number of doctor to be assigned.
The applicability of the standards issued in 2024, however, has elapsed with the end of FY25 and new standards with a specific number of Panchayats to be covered and the minimum percentage of the coverage will have to be complied with by all insurers for FY26 and FY27.
According to government data, there are 2.68 Lakh village Panchayats in the country.
More so
Published on July 27, 2025
#Irdai #mandatory #insurers #cover #grams #panchayats #tax