MUMBAI: RuPay cardholders will have dual insurance covers, with the government roping in the Life Insurance Corporation of India a day before unveiling its financial inclusion programme Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana LIC, the country’s largest financial institution, will offer a life cover of Rs 30,000 while HDFC Ergo will provide a Rs 1-lakh personal accident cover to RuPay cardholders.The massive financial inclusion project to be launched across India on Thursday will give unbanked customers RuPay debit card, launched by the National Payments Corporation of India ( NPCI ), along with free insurance cover and new bank account.NPCI had entered into a three-year agreement with private general insurance HDFC Ergo and a similar agreement will be signed with LIC.Senior officials said the government had decided to improvise the scheme by providing additional insurance cover. The government approached LIC after first picking the state-owned general insurance company New India Assurance for providing additional cover of Rs 1 lakh.“After a day-long meeting with senior officials from government-owned banks, NPCI, LIC and government-owned general insurance companies on Wednesday evening, LIC was asked to provide additional insurance cover to RuPay cardholders,” said a finance ministry official, who did not wish to be named.LIC will provide unconditional cover to RuPay cardholders. HDFC Ergo will provide cover to the cardholders in case of death or permanent disability. As per the agreement between HDFC Ergo and NPCI, a claim will be disposed only if the card is active. A card will be considered active if the cardholder has swiped it within 45 days of making a claim. The NPCI is in talks with HDFC Ergo to improvise the scheme so that the claim can be made if the card was swiped within the preceding 90 days.The NPCI has issued 23 million cards, and it is estimated that 150 million new bank accounts will be opened and as many new cards will be issued in the unbanked areas by March 2016, with the NPCI paying the premium instead of the cardholder.The Jan Dhan Yojana aims to cover 60% of the country’s population that does not have access to formal banking services. Under the scheme, every household will be provided one bank account within a year.