Lavanya Mundayur, CMD, Agriculture Insurance Company

The FSIB had interviewed six candidates on Thursday and chose Mundayur for the post of NIA CMD.

New Delhi:The Financial Services Institutions Bureau(FSIB), on Thursday, has selected Lavanya Mundayur, 57,CMD, Agriculture Insurance Company(AIC), as the new CMD of New India Assurance, the largest general insurance multinational in the country.

The FSIB,the headhunting agency for the posts executive directors and above in the PSU banks and insurance companies, had interviewed six PSU and private sector candidates for selecting a CMD of NIA on Thursday and chose Mundayur for the post.

“Keeping in view their performance in the interface, their overall exprience and the extant parameters, the FSIB recommends Mundayur for the position of CMD NIA,” stated the FSIB.

With 35 years of experience, Mundayur is currently the youngest CMD in the PSU general insurance industry. She had joined NIA as a direct recruit officer in 1991 and was a general manager and chief underwriting officer of NIA before moving to AIC as a CMD in 2024.

She will be retiring in May 2029.

Apart from launching many new initiatives, AIC,under the leadership of Mundayur, has increased its share in the domestic Crop insurance market from 32per cent in FY 25 to 47 per cent in FY 26.

The post of CMD at NIA will fall vacant in July end when current CMD Girija Subramanian retires from service after reaching 60.

Coincidentally, Subramanian was also the CMD of AIC when she was selected as the CMD of NIA in 2024.

The officials, who had appeared for the interview are- Mini George, executive director(ED), Agriculture Insurance Company(AIC), S Sivasankar,ED, New India Assurance along with three private sector candidates Ashok Lahoty,actuary, National Insurance Company,and Prabha Chokani, Head of Broking and Chief Marketing Officer at Willis Towers Watson Insurance Brokers,Rajiv Kumar, CEO, Alliance Insurance Corporation, Tanzania.