In the absence of a regular chairman after Debasish Panda ended his three-year term in March ,PK Arora, member, Actuary, IRDAI, will chair the IRDAI board meeting
New Delhi/Hyderabad: Insurance regulator IRDAI will have its board meeting on 14th July and is likely to finalise licenses for some new players along with approval for Rs 4,500 deal by Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved to acquire acquisition of Magma General Insurance
In the absence of a regular chairman after Debasish Panda ended his three-year term in March ,PK Arora, member, Actuary, IRDAI, the senior most will chair the meeting.
Though , there are a few licenses which are ready to be issued, IRDAI seems to have waited for the appointment of a regular chairman to finalise them.
However, the appointment of a new chairman has got delayed for various reasons though names of the contenders. who are in the race, have almost remained the same for the last four months.
They are Girdhar Armane, former Defense Secretary, Ajay Seth, former Finance Secretary, Pankaj Jain, Petroleum Secretary. Of late , the name of Nagaraju, Secreteray, Financial services has been added to the list.
In fact, after Panda’s departure , Nagaraju has been regularly meeting insurers and IRDAI officials to discuss key issues of the industry.
Sources say most likely general insurance joint venture between WestBridge Capital and Neelesh Garg , former MD and CEO of Tata AIG General Insurance , will be receiving its license.
This will be the Bengaluru-based private equity firm’s second investment into the insurance sector following its successful part-exit from Star Health Insurance through its IPO in 2021.
To be headquartered in Bengaluru, the joint venture has already recruited a lot of manpower.
Other players who are waiting for licenses are- a general insurance joint venture among Qatar Insurance Group, Sam Ghosh’s Cosmea Financial Holdings and a few other investors, M Pallonji Group’s general insurance company with True North and other investors.
Quite a lot of prospective players are waiting for the Insurance Amendment Act, with a host of new features to be tabled in the Parliament, to apply for their licenses from the IRDAI.