Microfinance Focus May 25, 2011: IFMR Rural Finance has recently been appointed as one of the Non-Governmental Agencies (INGA) by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India, to participate in its national health insurance scheme, Rashtriya Swastya Bima Yojana (RSBY).

The RSBY provides insurance coverage for Below Poverty Line (BPL) families as well as hospitalisation coverage of up to Rs. 30,000 which arises out of health shocks. The RSBY has already enrolled close to 23.5 million households in the BPL category.

As a result of this appointment, customers of Kshetriya Gramin Financial Services (KGFS) can now avail health insurance under the RSBY. More than 170,000 rural households in Tamil Nadu, Orissa, and Uttarakhand that are already being serviced by IFMR Rural Finance can now benefit from the scheme.

Under the arrangement, the KGFS will be responsible for customer identification, creating awareness about the benefits and premium collection, while the insurers and RSBY will be responsible for managing the hospital network and administering of the insurance programme.

The product portfolio of KGFS includes investment, credit, remittance and insurance products. IFMR Rural Finance is already an aggregator for PFRDA’s NPS-Lite. While customers could already avail personal accident, life, livestock and shopkeepers insurance through KGFS, the latest development offers the protection against health shocks for remote rural households.

IFMR Holdings is creating a network of Kshetriya Gramin Financial Services (KGFS) companies to meet the demand for financial services in rural parts of India.