Headless general insurers set to get new helmsmen

The government has at long last moved to appoint a managing director for national reinsurer GIC Ltd and a chairman and managing director for...

The government has at long last moved to appoint a managing director for national reinsurer GIC Ltd and a chairman and managing director for the New India Assurance (NIA), the country’s largest non-life company.

Accordingly, through separate notifications issued on Tuesday, P.B. Ramanujam, general manager of National Insurance, would be taking charge as MD of GIC, while R. Beri, GM of NIA, would be its new CMD. Three of the four state-owned general insurers have been without full-time chief executives for months now.

It is understood that orders are also under way for the appointment of S.L. Mohan, GM of United India, at the helm of Oriental, as also of H.S. Wadhwa, GM, as CMD of National Insurance.

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National Insurance has not had a full-time CMD since M.K. Tandon retired at the end of September last year. Delhi-based Oriental Insurance has been without one too, following the superannuation of B.D. Banerjee at October-end. Joint secretary in the finance ministry Ajit Sharan has been holding concurrent charge since.

The top post at New India has been lying vacant since February-end with the retirement of K.N. Bhandari. Incidentally, the post of GIC chairman falls vacant this June. It is expected that existing director P.C. Ghosh would stand a fair chance of being appointed to the job.

With vacuum at the top, the public sector undertakings (PSUs) have been moving rather slowly in the face of gradually growing competition. It is expected that with a crop of chief executives who have tenures of over two years or more, the state-run companies would be in a position to catch up with the trends and technology that private players are setting. Beri retires in October 2005 and Ramanujam in August 2004.

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) chairman N. Rangachary has already publicly commended the new general insurers for bringing in more innovation into the marketplace. The new helmsmen will have their jobs truly cut out for them, industry circles pointed out.