The five GMs are –BS Rahul, Agriculture Insurance Company(AIC), Sunita Gupta, Oriental insurance Company(OIC), Hitesh Joshi along with two of his other colleagues V Balkrishna and his spouse Jayshree Bala from GIC Re
Rahul will only be considered for UII and NIA while the rest four will be competing for the top post of NIA
This is the first time that there are no candidates from NIA that too for its own post of CMD
New Delhi:
The Department of Financial Services(DFS), under the Ministry of Finance, has shortlisted five general mangers(GMs) from different PSU re/insurers to fill up the two forthcoming vacancies of CMDs at Chennai based United Indian Insurance(UII) and New India Assurance(NIA),the largest multinational general insurer in the country.
The five GMs are –BS Rahul, Agriculture Insurance Company(AIC), Sunita Gupta, Oriental insurance Company(OIC), Hitesh Joshi along with two of his other colleagues V Balkrishna and his spouse Jayshree Bala from GIC Re.
UII vacancy will occur after Satyajit Tripathy retires in February end while NIA vacancy will occur after Neerja Kapur ends her tenure in April end after reaching 60.
Out of the five, Rahul will only be considered for UII and the rest fourwill be competing for the top post of NIA.
Rahul is the senior most official in the list followed by Joshi while the Bala couple and Gupta have got their promotions as GMs in FY 2023-24 and will be completing just one year by the time NIA vacancy happens in April.
Though, the government rule says a candidate has to be a GM for a minimum period of two years to be eligible for the consideration of CMD post, all three new GMs have been given special relaxation, for the first time, as there are no other candidates except Rahul and Joshi who fulfill that condition in the PSU general insurance industry.
However, all the five GMs have residual services of more than two years.
The ministry sources said they have purely gone by the seniority while shortlising the names of GMs and there is also a proposal now with the government to consider Girija Subramanian, CMD, AIC, to be one of the contenders of these two top posts of PSU general insurance industry. Whether it will finally happen or how it will happen is yet to be made clear.
As AIC under Subramanian’s leadership has done well and has ended with a net profit of Rs 766 crore (with an underwriting profit of Rs 133 crore) in fy 2022-23, the government is keen to utilise her expertise for a larger general insurance company, said sources.
The FSIB, the headhunting agency for the posts above executive directors in the PSU banks and insurance companies, will soon announce a date for the interviews.
The DFS will also soon start the process for appointing nine EDs for the six member companies of the GIPSA. Though, the eligibility criteria of two years as a GM is there for the post of ED also, relaxations have to be given as there are not many candidates are to fill these large vacancies.
Meanwhile, amidst the preparation for appointing two new CMDs, industry observers have pointed out to a changing HR scenario in the PSU general ,insurance industry.
This is the first time that there are no candidates from the NIA that too for its own post of CMD. There was a time, almost all four companies were headed by officials from the NIA.
“The PSU general insurance industry seems to be getting more democratised where no one company has dominance. From heavily NIA centric to a situation, where no NIA candidates are there today for its own CMD, is a reality now‘’ said industry observers.
“It is a sad situation for NIA. We never thought such a situation will arise ever for the company,” said a senior NIA official.
Multinational reinsurer GIC Re seems to be at advantage now. With just 500 employees( no clerical staffs), in a smaller outfit, purely from HR point of view, its officials are now in a positions to get much faster promotion till the level of GMs. Irrespective of staff strength, all the state owned general re/insurers have six GMs each.
During the last three years, from nothing in two decades, its officials have been chosen to head UII and National Insurance Company(NIC) and more are in the queue.
Even Rajeshwari Singh, who is originally from AIC , for the first time, has been appointed as the CMD of Kolkata based NIC.
Analysts point out that with AIC and GIC Re now part of GIPSA , which was earlier the official coordinating agency for only four PSU general insurance companies but now expanded to six after the inclusion of GIC Re and AIC, the officials of big four PSUs are bound to lose out on becoming CMDs or EDs as smaller organizations like GIC Re and AIC will churn out more eligible candidates faster, particularly, those who have two years or more years of residual services left when the government is preferring candidates with longer terms.
Very unfortunate turn of events since GIC/AIC executives have no first hand experience of running a Direct insurer.
So……
The promotion policies keep on changing every year and of late general psu’s are at the receiving end…The playing field of PSU general is entirely different from that of GIC Re and AIC.. This should be the moot point …
Completely agree with Mr Uppal
We do have a good number of GMs in the 4 Companies having experience in running General Insurance companies.
Apart from other pre-conditions for the appointment of of CMDs in PSU general insurers, it should be made mandatory that the candidate should have serviced a PSU GI after becoming chief manager for a period of 10 years in various capacities and in various departments
New India being the largest insurer and the only insurer with presence in overseas also should have a very experienced and seasoned CMD to keep it’s flag high in the highly competitive market today . But, it seems the trend is otherwise.
It’s the result of undesired interference of govt. There was a time when every PSU Gen ins company was having decision makers originally from New India and those officials didn’t have the loyalty with company they were posted. New Indians used to get promotions faster then their batchmates of other companies.
New India Assurance should have been a seasoned champion. Being a customer since last 40 years I have now more than 10 grievances in PMO which New India Assurance never responds to my satisfaction
Officials do not have equal opportunity for promotions. Less deserving become GMs and CMDs faster than more deserving by mere virtue of paucity in Companies. Very unfair
Considering seniority among not very comparable companies and ignoring talents , exposure & merits are a imperfect policy initiatives.
General insurance is all together a different ball game.
These insurers in india do business with 33 competitors dealing with 1000 ever evolving products, highly complex and technical core issues, supervise over 80,000 employees, overseeing large domestic offices and international operations, 1000 mega policies, product reorientation, handling battery of agents, brokers ,surveyors,advocates , Tpas healthcare industry, motor dealers, insurtechs, Bancassurance partners,investigators, cyber experts, fund managers. who have potential to change the rule of game at any time.
Winning their trust is one of the core requirements in this business for sustainability. On the tap of it, three of PSGI companies are already in deep stress and incurring heavy underwriting losses with solvency margin issues. Therefore, it is all the more necessary to choose their heads who can bring out changes to remain at par with their dominating competitors and at same time work on growth to increase penetration, though, it looks quite a herculean task.
Hence, an urgent call is that persons having sufficient experience and exposures in the general insurance industry in senior positions be it in public, private or global companies including intermediaries, digital experts having technical and marketing exposure in very senior positions who have a knack for simplifying processes, use AI in premium determination, improve communication to change perspective and improve tractions in PSU should be preferred over ages old stereotype procedure just to meet protocol.
However, in wake of fast changing landscapes brought by regulator Irdai to bring out time bound reforms that could help increase penetration, for CMD appointment, preference should be accorded to one who can take out-of- box solutions, create new ideas to outperform and not just run the traditional system.
To meet this criterion, only industry experts will be far better choice as compared with seniors of sister companies who have no exposure and understanding as a primary insurers. Even if they are appointed, by the time, they will learn , they may have to retire.
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It is unfortunate that GIC Re, and AIC executives are considered to head four GIPSA companies, having no first hand experience of managing a non life company. This will make coming days very tough for these companies, as they face mass retirements, very little recruitment, and tough competition from private sector.