NEW DELHI: The government has unveiled a new Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme with premium to be paid by farmers as low as 1.5 per cent of sum assured for all rabi crops and 2 per cent for kharif crops.The scheme comes without any cap on overall premium rate to ensure full claims, which means there is no upper limit on the subsidy the government provides towards balance premium."This scheme will be like a suraksha kavach (shield) for farmers and remove an atmosphere of financial uncertainty," home minister Rajnath Singh , the main architect of the scheme, said in a press briefing on Wednesday soon after the cabinet approved it.The new scheme improves upon the NDA scheme of 1999 and a subsequent scheme launched by the UPA in 2010 which together had resulted in 23 per cent coverage among farmers. The government now is aiming for 50 per cent coverage in the next one year "The premium rates to be paid by farmers are very low and balance premium will be paid by the government to provide full insured amount to the farmers against crop loss on account of natural calamities," the government said in a statement.Under the scheme, there will be a uniform premium of only 2 per cent to be paid by farmers for all kharif crops and 1.5 per cent for all rabi crops. In case of annual commercial and horticultural crops, the premium to be paid by farmers will be only 5 per cent. Unseasonal rains and cyclonic rains across the country will count for post-harvest losses coverage.Also, there is now no upper limit on government subsidy. "This capping was done to limit Government outgo on the premium subsidy. This capping has now been removed and farmers will get claim against full sum insured without any reduction," the government said.The Cabinet approved a high-powered committee to process the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission that has suggested a nearly 25 per cent rise in wages of serving employees and pensioners. The committee will be headed by cabinet secretary PK Sinha.The empowered committee of secretaries will function as a screening committee to process the recommendations with regard to all relevant factors of the Commission in an expeditious detailed and holistic fashion, an official statement said.A pact between India and Maldives on facilitating greater cooperation got ex-post facto approval, along with assisting development of human resources in healthcare in that country. The MoU covers cooperation in areas like exchange and training of doctors and other health professionals and medical and health research development.The MoU also covers cooperation in the area of management of healthcare sector and public health services, procurement of generic and essential drugs and assistance in sourcing of drug supplies, health promotion and disease prevention, traditional and complementary medicine, telemedicine and any other area of cooperation as may be mutually decided upon.The Cabinet also gave the nod for India to become a member country of International Energy Agency -Ocean Energy Systems (IEA-OES), a move that will give access to advanced R&D teams and technologies across the world and help tap ocean renewable energy resources.This initiative will help in advance research, development and demonstration of technologies to harness energy from all forms of ocean renewable resources, as well as for other uses, such as desalination through "international cooperation and information exchange".Nodal agency for the membership by signing the implementing agreement would be Earth System Science Organisation - National Institute of Ocean Technology under the ministry of earth sciences.(With inputs from agencies)