Building Parametric Insurance for Gig Workers — My First Hackathon, Real Stakes

I never thought my first real hackathon would involve insurance law, AQI thresholds, and wondering if a Zomato delivery guy in Chennai can afford to take a day off when it floods. But here I am. The Problem We're Solving Guidewire DEVTrails 2026 gave us a deceptively simple prompt: protect India's gig delivery workers from income loss due to external disruptions — extreme weather, pollution spikes, natural disasters. Not health insurance. Not vehicle repair. Specifically lost income — because when it rains so hard that Swiggy shuts down orders, the delivery worker still has rent due on Sunday. These workers operate on weekly pay cycles. No work = no pay. And they have zero safety net. That clicked for me personally. I've seen delivery riders push through waterlogged roads. They don't stop because they can't afford to. What We're Building It's called a parametric insurance platform — which, before this hackathon, I had to Google. Parametric insurance doesn't ask you to prove your loss.