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July 2, 2026

Claims & Loss Prevention - June 30, 2026 - 6 min read

No-Fault Claims Under the Public Liability Insurance Act 1991: Mandatory Cover, the Environment Relief Fund and What Hazardous-Substance Handlers Actually Pay Out

The Public Liability Insurance Act 1991 imposes strict, no-fault liability on anyone handling hazardous substances and makes liability insurance mandatory. Victims claim immediate relief without proving negligence. This post explains how the claims side works: the District Collector's role, the twin payout from the mandatory policy and the Environment Relief Fund, and why brokers must not confuse this statutory cover with voluntary public-liability programmes.

By Sarvada Editorial Team

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Underwriting & Risk - June 30, 2026 - 6 min read

Building Commercial Capacity Through Treaty Structures: Quota Share, Surplus and Excess of Loss in India 2026

Most Indian commercial capacity is not a single number an underwriter picks. It is assembled in layers of proportional and non-proportional treaty that sit behind the direct policy. This post explains how a quota share, a surplus treaty and per-risk and catastrophe excess of loss combine to set the line a direct insurer can offer, why ceding commission and reinstatements matter, and how treaty terms quietly constrain a book before facultative is even needed.

By Tarun Kumar Singh

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Claims & Loss Prevention - June 30, 2026 - 6 min read

RSMD and SRCC Claims After Civil Unrest in India 2026: Where the Fire Add-On Ends and the Terrorism Pool Begins

When a factory is damaged by rioting, a labour strike or mob action, the claim usually settles under the RSMD add-on to the Standard Fire and Special Perils policy. But cross the line into excluded terrorism and only the Indian terrorism pool responds. This post is a claims-practice playbook for characterising the peril, building the FIR and evidence trail, holding the malicious-damage line, and answering the common repudiation grounds.

By Sarvada Editorial Team

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Claims & Loss Prevention - June 30, 2026 - 6 min read

Surety Bond Invocation and Recovery in India 2026: When the Bond Is Called, Who Pays First, and How the Insurer Claws It Back

When a beneficiary such as NHAI, a PSU or a project owner invokes a surety bond, the payout mechanics turn entirely on whether the bond is conditional or unconditional, and the insurer's recovery from the contractor is a separate fight altogether. This post walks the claims and recovery side of IRDAI surety insurance: on-demand exposure, the contractor indemnity agreement, personal guarantees and the unresolved recourse-rights gap that slows recovery.

By Sarvada Editorial Team

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Underwriting & Risk - June 30, 2026 - 7 min read

Insuring the Coal Plant Nobody Wants to Cover: Thermal Coal Power Availability and Underwriting in India 2026

India is still commissioning thermal coal capacity even as global insurers and reinsurers withdraw from new coal construction and operation. That opens a widening gap between domestic energy policy and the cover a coal independent power producer or its EPC contractor can actually buy. This post sets out which insurers have published coal restrictions, what it means for property, machinery breakdown and erection cover, and how brokers structure programmes when international capacity narrows.

By Tarun Kumar Singh

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Underwriting & Risk - June 30, 2026 - 6 min read

Warranties, Conditions Precedent and Basis Clauses: Where Underwriting Intent Meets Claims Enforceability in Indian Policy Wordings 2026

An underwriter loads a fire or liability policy with warranties intending them as risk controls, but Indian law treats a warranty as a stipulation in the nature of a condition precedent. Breach can let the insurer repudiate even where it did not cause the loss. This post sets out how brokers distinguish warranties, conditions precedent and bare conditions, how Indian courts enforce them, and how to negotiate the language at placement.

By Tarun Kumar Singh

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Risk Management Strategies - June 29, 2026 - 5 min read

Annual Aggregate Deductibles and Aggregate Stop-Loss: Structuring Retentions for High-Frequency Losses in Indian Corporate Programmes

Per-claim deductibles do not protect a balance sheet against a bad year of many small losses. This post sets out how annual aggregate deductibles and aggregate stop-loss caps convert frequency volatility into a known maximum retained spend, how an aggregating specific deductible interacts with a per-event retention, and where these structures fit for Indian risk managers running fleet, multi-location property and general liability exposures.

By Tarun Kumar Singh

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Regulation & Compliance - June 29, 2026 - 5 min read

Section 63 Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam and Electronic Evidence: The New Certificate Rules That Decide Whether Your Commercial Claim Survives in Court

CCTV footage, emails, telematics data and system logs now drive most contested commercial claims, and the rules for admitting them in court have changed. This post explains how Section 63 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 replaces the old Section 65B, introduces a dual-certificate and hash-value regime, and why defective certification can sink a repudiation or a subrogation suit no matter how strong the underlying evidence is.

By Tarun Kumar Singh

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Regulation & Compliance - June 29, 2026 - 6 min read

The Bills of Lading Act 2025 and Rights of Suit: What India's New Maritime Title Law Means for Marine Cargo Claims and Subrogation

India has replaced its 169-year-old colonial bills of lading statute. The Bills of Lading Act, 2025 rewrites who can sue under a bill of lading and reaffirms the document's role as title to goods. This post explains what the change means for marine cargo insurers and traders: how rights of suit transfer to consignees and endorsees, why that matters for subrogation recoveries, and the practical claims implications for Indian exporters and importers.

By Tarun Kumar Singh

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Regulation & Compliance - June 29, 2026 - 5 min read

The Boilers Act 2025 and Machinery Breakdown Cover: How India's First Boiler-Law Overhaul in a Century Reshapes Engineering Insurance Compliance

The Boilers Act, 2025 repeals the 1923 statute after nearly a hundred years, rewriting registration, inspection and the offence regime for steam boilers. This post explains what underwriters and risk managers in sugar, textile, chemical and power plants should read into the change, how four retained criminal offences differ from the new fiscal penalties, and where the reform touches boiler explosion and machinery breakdown policy conditions.

By Tarun Kumar Singh

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Risk Management Strategies - June 29, 2026 - 6 min read

Self-Funding Employee Benefits Through a Captive and Medical Stop-Loss: A Risk-Financing Playbook for Large Indian Employers

As group-health claims inflation outpaces salary budgets, large Indian employers and global capability centres are asking whether to keep buying fully insured cover or to self-fund the predictable layer and reinsure the volatility. This post sets out the risk-financing mechanics of an employee-benefit captive, the difference between specific and aggregate stop-loss, the pooling options that make self-funding safer below the largest scale, and the multi-year governance the route demands.

By Tarun Kumar Singh

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Risk Management Strategies - June 29, 2026 - 6 min read

Closing the Construction-to-Operational Insurance Handover Gap on Indian Projects: CAR/EAR Maintenance Periods, Testing and the First-Day Operational Cover

When an Indian plant, metro line or power project finishes, the most dangerous moment for its insurance is the seam between the construction policy and the operational programme. Mismatched testing-and-commissioning definitions, an unclear point of transfer and an overlooked maintenance period can leave a finished asset uninsured on the very day it starts earning. This post sets out the handover mechanics and a checklist to keep cover continuous from commissioning into operations.

By Tarun Kumar Singh

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Risk Management Strategies - June 29, 2026 - 6 min read

Pursuing Highly Protected Risk Status for Indian Industrial Assets: Turning Loss Prevention into Property Premium Reduction

After fire-rate de-tariffing and burning-cost repricing, an Indian manufacturer can no longer assume a soft tariff will hold its property premium down. Discounts now have to be earned through engineering. This post explains the Highly Protected Risk standard, what fire-resistive construction, dedicated fire-water, automatic protection, housekeeping and management commitment actually require, and how reaching that standard converts capex into structural property-premium savings and better terms.

By Tarun Kumar Singh

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Risk Management Strategies - June 29, 2026 - 6 min read

Loss of Attraction and Leader-Property Cover: Insuring Footfall-Dependent Indian Retail and Real-Estate Assets Against Nearby Events

A mall tenant, multiplex or destination-retail store can lose weeks of revenue when a neighbouring anchor or attraction is damaged, even though its own premises are untouched. Standard business-interruption cover, which responds only to damage at the insured's own property, misses this entirely. This post explains loss-of-attraction and leader-property extensions, the emerging non-damage variant, and how Indian retail and real-estate risk managers should scope the sub-limits and indemnity periods.

By Tarun Kumar Singh

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Risk Management Strategies - June 29, 2026 - 6 min read

Malicious Product Tampering and Contamination Crisis-Management Cover for Indian Food, Beverage and Pharma Manufacturers

Contaminated Product Insurance pays far more than the cost of pulled stock. It funds the recall logistics, the testing bill, the legal exposure, the lost trading and the crisis-management work that decides whether a brand survives a tampering scare. This post explains what the filed Indian wording covers, how the malicious-tampering trigger works, and how F&B and pharma risk managers should fit a crisis retainer into their strategy.

By Tarun Kumar Singh

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Regulation & Compliance - June 29, 2026 - 5 min read

The Mediation Act 2023 and Commercial Insurance Disputes: Where Pre-Litigation Mediation Sits Alongside Arbitration and the Ombudsman in India

India now has a dedicated mediation statute, and it reorders the toolkit for resolving commercial insurance disputes. This post maps where the Mediation Act, 2023 sits next to arbitration clauses, the insurance ombudsman and consumer forums, why a mediated settlement agreement carries the force of a decree, and how it interacts with the mandatory pre-institution mediation already required for certain commercial suits.

By Tarun Kumar Singh

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Insurance for Startups & New Economy - June 28, 2026 - 6 min read

Product Liability for India's Alt-Protein and Cultivated-Meat Startups: Insuring 'Novel Food' Before FSSAI Finalises the Rules

Cultivated meat sits in a regulatory gap: FSSAI classes it as a non-specified or novel food with no finalised rule, yet the category already faces recall, contamination, mislabelling and consumer-injury exposure. This post shows how brokers structure product liability, recall and technical indemnity cover for first-of-kind food startups, and why the unsettled regulatory status drives the exclusions that matter most.

By Sarvada Editorial Team

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Global & Cross-Border Insurance - June 28, 2026 - 6 min read

ATA Carnet Shipments: The Transit and Equipment Cover Gap When Indian Firms Send Gear Abroad for Trials, Fairs and Projects

An ATA Carnet moves your test rigs, instruments and demo units across borders duty-free, but it is a customs document, not an insurance policy. This post explains what the carnet does and does not do for Indian firms, why high-value equipment travelling out and back needs transit and electronic-equipment cover, and how the issuing association's guarantee creates a recovery exposure if goods do not re-import in time.

By Sarvada Editorial Team

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Regulation & Compliance - June 28, 2026 - 6 min read

Bima-ASBA for Commercial Group Covers: How IRDAI's UPI Premium-Blocking Mandate Changes Proposal-to-Issuance Cash Flow for Brokers in India 2026

IRDAI's Bima-ASBA facility lets a policyholder block premium in their own bank account through a UPI mandate, with the money debited only when the insurer accepts the proposal. This post walks brokers and corporate risk managers through what that means for group health and other affected commercial placements: consent capture, the proposal-to-acceptance gap, the end of the refund cycle, and where the facility does and does not yet apply.

By Tarun Kumar Singh

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Global & Cross-Border Insurance - June 28, 2026 - 5 min read

FCPA and UK Bribery Act Exposure for Indian Exporters and GCCs: What D&O and Crime Policies Actually Pay For

Indian companies listed or trading in the US or UK, and the Indian GCCs of US and UK groups, sit inside extraterritorial anti-bribery enforcement. The hard truth is that D&O and crime policies pay for defence and investigation costs but not the fines, penalties or disgorgement that follow a finding. This post explains what these wordings cover, where the exclusions bite, and how the UK failure-to-prevent regime and India's own corporate-liability law interact.

By Sarvada Editorial Team

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Global & Cross-Border Insurance - June 28, 2026 - 5 min read

Insuring Aircraft and Ship Leasing out of GIFT City IFSC: Hull, Lessor Contingent Cover and the 2025 Cape Town Act

GIFT City has become India's aircraft leasing hub and an emerging ship leasing centre, where the asset is owned offshore, leased into India and exposed to repossession risk. Brokers must coordinate operator-procured hull and liability cover with the lessor's contingent hull, repossession cover and war wordings, and align insurance interests across the SPV layers. The 2025 Cape Town Act resets the repossession and insolvency calculus.

By Sarvada Editorial Team

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Regulation & Compliance - June 28, 2026 - 6 min read

GST on Co-Insurance Apportionment and Reinsurance Commission: What the Schedule III 'No Supply' Regularisation Means for Commercial Programme Costing in India

A 2024 amendment moved co-insurance premium apportionment and reinsurance commission into Schedule III of the CGST Act, treating them as neither goods nor services. This post explains, for brokers placing large co-insured risks, how the change removes a layer of GST from programme costing, what the retrospective 'as is where is' settlement covers, and the conditions the relief depends on.

By Tarun Kumar Singh

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Global & Cross-Border Insurance - June 28, 2026 - 5 min read

Inbound Global Insurance Programmes into India: Placing Local Admitted Policies for Foreign MNC Parents Without Tripping the Fronting Ban

When a foreign-headquartered group needs to bring its Indian risks into a global master programme, the local Indian policy must do real work. India is admitted-only and IRDAI disapproves of pure fronting, so the local admitted policy has to carry genuine retained risk, real local wordings and India-based claims settlement. This post walks brokers through the structure, the DIC and DIL interface, premium allocation and FEMA remittance.

By Sarvada Editorial Team

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Global & Cross-Border Insurance - June 28, 2026 - 6 min read

Shipping Lithium Batteries by Sea: IMDG Amendment 42-24, UN38.3 and the Cargo-Cover Traps for Indian EV and BESS Exporters

Lithium cells and battery packs are Class 9 dangerous goods, and the sea leg carries cover traps that catch Indian EV and BESS exporters. This post walks through IMDG Code Amendment 42-24, the mandatory UN38.3 testing prerequisite, the lithium-battery warranties cargo underwriters attach, and the inherent-vice, packaging and misdeclaration exclusions that have left shippers carrying container-fire losses.

By Sarvada Editorial Team

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