New Delhi: General Insurance Council, the official representative body of the Rs 1.7 lakh-crore general insurance industry, will soon get its new secretary. The announcement is expected to come shortly after the new Union finance minister takes charge, as the selection process for the post is under way, a top industry source said.
Interactions were held in Mumbai on May 29 to select the chief of the General Insurance Council, or GI Council. Out of 14 applications invited by the government for the post, only five names were short-listed, while only four appeared for the interaction, the source said.
“The insurance professionals who appeared for the interaction include MN Sharma (former CMD, United India Insurance), John Pulinthanam (General Manager & Director, National Insurance Company), Balwant Singh (former GM & Director, Oriental Insurance Company), CR Vijayan, (former GM & Director, GIC Re), and the candidate who didn’t turn up for the interaction was Deepak Sood (former CEO, Future Generali India Life Insurance),” the source said.
R Chandrasekaran, 66, who held the post as secretary general of the GI Council since November 16, 2011, will be calling it a day in end July, after getting extension twice in the last eight years.
Five members of the executive committee of the GI Council will be interacting with the four candidates to select the new secretary. The five members are: AV Girija Kumar, CMD, Oriental Insurance Company & Chairman of the Council; Anuj Gulati, MD & CEO, Religare Health Insurance Company; Ritesh Kumar, MD & CEO, HDFC Ergo General Insurance; Alice Vaidyan, CMD, GIC Re; and CR Biswal, former Additional Chief Secretary, Andhra Pradesh .
In another development, the GI Council and the Life Insurance Council (LIC) have also decided to cap the retirement age of secretary general at 65. V Manickam, Secretary, Life Insurance Council, will be retiring in March 2020.
Set up under Section 64C of the Insurance Act, 1938 and coming under the the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India from 2001, the GI Council is an important link between the insurance regulator and the non-life insurance industry. It also pushes for the industry’s issues with the government.
