An innovative insurance scheme in India provides payouts to workers like Lata Solanki when temperatures reach dangerous levels, allowing them to stay home without losing income. This 'parametric' insurance activates automatically when heat thresholds are breached.

Clothes seller Lata Solanki used to face a devastating choice when India’s summer heat hit dangerous levels: risk her health going door-to-door for sales, or lose her income? But now the 42-year-old is part of an insurance scheme that pays out when temperatures hit a threshold, so she can stay home without jeopardising her finances. The “parametric” model pays out automatically when specific triggers are breached, in Solanki’s case after two consecutive days at 43.72 degrees Celsius (110 degrees...