From PSU insurance sector, Lavanya Mundayur, CMD, Agriculture Insurance Company(AIC), Mini George, executive director(ED),AIC, S Sivasankar,ED, New India Assurance, and from the private sector, 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,have been shortlisted

New Delhi:The Financial Services Institutions Bureau (FSIB),the government’s headhunting body for appointing top executives in public sector financial institutions, is set to interview five senior industry officials on May 28 for selecting a candidate for the post of chairman and managing Director (CMD) of New India Assurance(NIA), the country’s largest general insurance multinational.

The post will fall vacant as Girija Subramanian,CMD, NIA,will be retiring on July 31 after reaching 60.

This is also for the first time, after GIC Re, the private sector candidates have been allowed to apply and shortlisted for the post.

Sources in New Delhi said five candidates from both PSU and private sector have been shortlisted by the FSIB for the interview.

The PSU officials, who have been shortlisted are Mini George, executive director(ED), Agriculture Insurance Company(AIC), S Sivasankar,ED, NIA, and CMD of a PSU insurance company.

From private sector, three candidates, Ashok Lahoty,actuary,National Insurance Company and Prabha Chokani, Head of Broking and Chief Marketing Officer at Willis Towers Watson Insurance Brokers and Rajiv Kumar, CEO, Alliance Insurance Corporation, Tanzania,have been chosen to appear the FSIB interview.

All of these officials have two years of residual services for the government retirement age of 60 as on Aug 1.

Subramanian was CMD of Delhi based Agriculture Insurance Company andhad faced FSIB again before being selected as CMD of NIA.

This is for the first time that private sector candidates have been allowed to apply for the NIA’s top job.The government, since Oct 4, has thrown open one post of managing director(out of four posts) in Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and all the posts of CMDs at PSU general insurance companies for the private sector professionals.

The last date for applying the NIA’s job was Apr 21.

This will be also the last interview to be conducted by Bhanu Pratap Sharma headed FSIB as the tenure of all the members(banking and insurance experts) and chairman are coming to an end on June 30. ,

Last year, the Centre had extended the tenure of the chairperson and members of the FSIB by one year, allowing them to continue in office till June 30, 2026.

From the insurance sector,the FSIB has part-time members, including Usha Sangwan, former MD of LIC, A V Girija Kumar, former CMD of Oriental Insurance Company and Sujay Banarji, former whole-time member (distribution) at IRDAI. The government is yet to name a FSIB team.

The government has also started the process of appointing new EDs in the public sector general insurance companies including United India Insurance, National Insurance Company and AIC.

However, the interview for new EDs may have to wait till new members of the FSIB are appointed, said sources.