Ahead of the 2024 general election, the government plans free insurance for cows as currently, farmers pay 20-50 per cent of the premium charged by insurance companies even after capping it at 4.5 per cent of the sum insured under the National Livestock Mission (NLM), launched in 2014-15.
As only about 1 per cent of the total livestock population has been covered under the subsidised insurance plan, the move may raise the coverage to 10 per cent in the next three years.
“The plan is at a very early stage, difficult to say how it will take shape as States will also have to be consulted. Their subsidy share will increase if the scheme is modelled on the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMPBY),” said anofficial source.
