New Delhi:
Many heavyweight retired and current bureaucrats and a few insurers have applied for the post of chairman of the Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority of India(IRDAI) .
The post has fallen vacant after Subhash C Khuntia, a former chief secretary of Karnataka, ended his three-year term on 6th May.
Among the serving and retired IAS(Indian Administrative Service) officials who have applied for the top regulatory job of the Indian insurance industry are- B.V.R. Subrahmanyam (1987 batch), who will be secretary, Ministry of Commerce, after serving as a chief secretary of Jammu and Kashmir(J&K) since 2018,Manoj Parida(1986 batch)), advisor to the administrator of Chandigarh, VP Joy(1987), chief secretary, Kerala, Chhabilendra Roul(1985), former secretary, Department of Fertilizers, Ministry of Fertilizers and Chemicals, Preeti Sudan, (1983-batch) who had retired as the union health secretary in July 2020,Anup Wadhawan, who will be retiring as the secretary, ministry of commerce in June end .
Wadhawan's name is talked about as one of the leading candidates, as he had a stint in the Department of Financial Services(DFS) earlier as a joint secretary in charge of insurance sector and was also an acting chairman of PFRDA, the pension regulatory body, said industry sources
Another name which is doing round in the government circuit for the IRDAI chairmanship is Injeti Srinivas, who is currently chairman of International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA),located in GIFT City, Ahmedabad.
A 1983-batch IAS officer,he is a former union secretary of ministry of corporate affairs(MCA) and was appointed as first chairman of IFSCA by the Modi government for a period of three years in July 2020.
The fact that he was chosen as the first chairman of IFSC at Gift city which is Prime minister Narendra Modi’s one of the pet projects shows that he carries the confidence of the government,
However, AIP has not been able to verify whether he has applied for the IRDAI's top post.
The last date for the application was 29th May.
From the public sector insurance companies MR Kumar, chairman, Life Insurance Corporation(LIC) is the lone candidate who though had applied fot the IRDAI job but may not be in the race now as he has been given n extension as the chairman of the corporation till March 2022, he was to retire in June end, with a primary purpose to oversee the smooth sale of the LIC’s proposed mega-IPO sometime in next six months.
Unlike last time, there have been no applications from the public sector companies as none of the managing directors of LIC and CMDs of the non-life companies are eligible to apply due to one of the eligibility criteria that only officials rank of secretary, Government of India, are eligible to apply for the post.
Industry observers have pointed out that eligibility criteria set by the government has been favourable to the private sector professionals as any CEO of a private sector financial institution with 30 years experience can apply for the top IRDA job while a md LIC or a CMD of public sector general insurance company can’t do that as he or she is not a secretary rank official.
Also T R Alamelu, member, Non-life, IRDAI and K Ganesh, member, Life, IRDAI have put in their applications though they are in the rank of additional secretary.
From the private sector insurance industry only Rajesh Relhan,a former MD& CEO, PNB Metlife India and S S Gopalarathnam, a former MD of Cholamandalam MS General Insurance have applied for the IRDAI job.
Relhan is known for his skills to build life insurance companies from the scratch while Gopalarathnam has been one of the veteran financial sector professions from Cholamandalam.Group
MoF will soon be shortlisting the candidates for the interview that would by conducted by the Financial Sector Regulatory Appointment Search Committee(FSRAC) comprising the cabinet secretary, governor, Reserve Bank of India and financial services secretary.
However,the FSRASC is free to identify and recommend any other person also, on the basis of merit, who has not applied for the post.