Four seen in race for insurance council chief

KOLKATA: The names of four contenders for the post of General Insurance Council���s (GIC) secretary general is doing the rounds following the resignation of KN Bhandari, who was the secretary general of the council.

The contenders are SL Mohan, Rajendra Beri, Ajit Narayan and H Ansari. Mr Mohan is a former chairman and managing director of Oriental Insurance Co while Mr Beri is a former CMD of New India Assurance. Mr Narayan, in turn, headed Iffco Tokio while H Ansari was with the National Insurance Academy.

The council is formed by a search committee with top executives from four companies. The panel includes M Ramdoss, present CMD of OIC; Sandeep Bakshi, MD and CEO of ICICI Lombard; S Narayan CEO of Iffco Tokio and Swaraj Krishnan, CEO Bajaj Allianz General Insurance.

The council represents the collective interests of non-life insurance companies in India. It speaks out on the issues of common interest; helps to inform and participate in discussions relating to policy formation and acts as an advocate for the high standards of customer service in the insurance industry.

The council also leads a number of initiatives by bringing together experts from member companies, the national re-insurers and the regulator in a common forum for debating specific issues from time to time and helps resolve them in a structured fashion.

Reportedly, Mr Bhandari, the former secretary general of the council, stepped down following differences between private and public sector players on a host of issues. There were differences over administered pricing, market wordings and health insurance.

Mr Bhandari had announced his decision to step down as the secretary general after a council meeting in Hyderabad a couple of weeks ago.