BC Patnaik, Member, Life, IRDAI

Recently, Patnaik, who retired as a  managing director of LIC in March 2023, has been selected as the director, National Insurance Academy(NIA) , Pune and is expected to take over his new academic assignment in mid Nov

Hyderabad/Pune: BC Patnaik has quit as member, Life, IRDAI.

This is the first time that a member is resigning his job at the insurance regulator before completing his term.

Patnaik, a 1986 batch of direct recruit officer of Life Insurance Corporation(LIC), had joined IRDA in May 2023 would have retired from the IRDA in March 2025 after reaching 62.

Recently, Patnaik, who retired as a  managing director of LIC in March 2023, has been selected as the director, National Insurance Academy(NIA) , Pune and is expected to take over his new academic assignment in mid Nov, said industry sources.

The NIA post had fallen vacant after Tarun Agarwal had put in his papers within one year of joining.

Normally, IRDAI members mandatorily needed to have some cooling off period before they take up any other other private sector assignment. But as NIA ,set up by government bodies, is considered as a government body, such cooling off period is not applicable to Patnaik, said sources.

Many important regulations including change of  regulations for paying higher surrender value for life insurance customers were implemented during the tenure of Patnaik.

The government will advertise for the post of Life, member shortly. The post right from the beginning of the inception of IRDA has been held by a senior official of LIC.

However, the government has appointed last two Non-Life members- Thomas Devasia and Deepak Sood- from the private sector insurance industry and it is worth watching if the same thing will be repeated for the appointment of a new Life member at the IRDAI.

NIA was established in 1980 jointly by the Ministry of Finance – Government of India, Life Insurance Corporation of India, General Insurance Corporation of India, New India Assurance Company, National Insurance Company, United India Insurance Company and The Oriental Insurance Company to be the institute of excellence in learning and research in Insurance, Pension and allied areas.

Later, the two year Post Graduate Diploma in Management course was initiated to fulfill the growing demand of skilled professionals in Insurance and Risk Management. The programme offers dual expertise in management and Insurance.