Tips to protecting your home and hearth against natural calamities

When buying a home insurance cover, opt for reinstatement value as the sum insured

Mild tremors have hit the national capital region (NCR) a couple of times in recent weeks. Experts say these are sometimes a precursor to a bigger shock. They did reignite memories of the havoc caused by major calamities such as Latur (1993) and Bhuj (2001) and once again underlined the need to buy an oft-ignored cover—home insurance.

Less than one per cent of households in India have home insurance. Insurers say there is usually a spike in queries after a region is hit by a natural disaster, but then interest wanes. “Whenever a major natural disaster occurs in India, the