According to sources in the industry, some of the general managers of GIC Re, who are being considered to hold charge at NIA are Madhulika Bhaskar and Jayshree Ranade
New Delhi:
The Ministry of Finance may ask a senior official of GIC Re to head New India Assurance(NIA) for a temporary period after Atul Sahai retires as the CMD of the company on Feb 28 after completing a three year tenure at the country’s largest non-life insurer .
According to sources in the industry, some of the general managers of GIC Re, who are being considered to hold charge at NIA by the MoF, include Madhulika Bhaskar and Jayshree Ranade.
Unlike the old practice, where normally two general managers of a PSU general insurance company, within the company where vacancy is occurring, are given charge as an interim arrangement till a regular CMD is appointed, this is for the first time, a general manager of another company that too from GIC Re, will be asked to hold the charge of CMD of another PSU general insurer.
The MoF earlier had thought about giving Anjan Dey, CMD, Oriental Insurance Company(OIC), the additional charge of NIA, but the insurance regulator had objected the arrangement citing regulations in Company Act which prohibits same person becoming executive chairman of two companies which can lead to conflict of interest.
“This may be reason why MoF would prefer an official from state owned GIC Re, which is purely into reinsurance business,’’ said sources.
Also, the Banks Board Bureau (BBB), which has been formed to select executive directors and MD & CEOs of PSU banks since 20216 and has been selecting directors and CMDs of PSU general insurance companies since 2018, has not started the process for selecting a CMD for NIA as the Delhi High Court had observed that the Bureau was not a competent body to appoint a directors in PSU general insurers.
There is also a current case pending with the Delhi HC, where Inderjeet Singh,general manager, NIA, has challenged government act of appointing Satyajit Tripathi as CMD of United India Insurance(UII) who was selected by the BBB a few months back.
The next hearing of the case is scheduled on March 21.
Effectively, MoF can’t start the process of appointing a CMD of NIA till Delhi High Court delivers its verdict.
Meanwhile, with Sahai, who was also chairman of General Insurance Council, the official representative body of Indian general insurer, retiring, Dey will be the new chairman of Mumbai based body.
Similarly, Delhi based GIPSA, the coordinating body of four general insurers and GIC Re, will be now headed by Suchita Mehta, CMD, National Insurance after Sahai.