New Delhi:
After almost two years of gap,the government has revamped and completed the due exercise, on Monday, to appoint nine directors in the public sector general insurance industry.
Putting an end to the earler system where the senior most general manager(GM( was automatically appointed as the director and posted in the company wherever the vacancies are available, the government has preferred to conduct the new selection exercise through the Banks Board Bureau, that selects MD & CEOs and executive directors for for PSU .banks and CMDs of PSU insurance companies.
On Monday, the Banks Board Bureau(BBB), headed by Bhanu Pratap Sharma,interviewed 22 general managers,who have completed two years of general mangership, from public sector general insurance companies and has selected nine out them to become the directors of the five companies-New India Assurance(NIA), National Insurance Company(NIC), The Oriental Insurance Company Ltd (OICL) and United India Insurance (UIICL). and GIC Re.
The nine senior officials who have new been selected as the new GM and directors are-Swami Balla for NIA, Anjan Dey for GIC Re,Deepak Prasad for GIC Re, Neera N Saxena for,NIC,Navneet Doda for NIC,Susmita Mukherjee for NIA,,Atul Jerath for OIC, Ravi Rai and Rajeev Chaudhury for UII.
This is also for the first time a GM of Delhi based Agriculture Insurance Company(AIC),Rajeev Chaudhury,had participated in the selection procudure to choose a director.for any PSU general insurance company and GIC Re..Earlier, the GMs of only four PSU general insurers and GIC Re were eligible to be appointed as the directors .
Unlike PSU banking sector,where GMs are promoted as executive directors,with new pay of scale,and additional perks,by the BBB, the directors in the PSU general insurance companies are still general mangers and just get one extra post retirement facility- life long free medical facilities for himself/herself and spouse.
Meanwhile,GIPSA’s selection committee,have promoted five deputy general mangers from the PSU general insurers and GIC Re as the new GMs. This is the lowest number of GMs ever have been appointed by the GIPSA selection committee in any yearin recent times..
Sources in the industry point out that though there were 12 vacancies of GMs in the industry,there were only 14 eligible DGMs, who have completed two years as DGMs, the main criteria to participate in the GM selection process.
“So the number of officials to be promoted as GMs were reduced to five to adjust with the availability of eligible officials.'' said sources.
The officials who were promted as GMs are -Girija Subramanian from GIC Re, PR Chittaranjan from NIC,G Sundararaman from UIIC,Geeta Santhaseelan from OIC,and Rashmi Raman Singh from OIC.
Similarly,in annual their annual promotional exercise,the PSU general insurers and GIC Re have promoted 28 officials as deputy general mangers.(DGM).