The government has started looking for suitable candidates to fill the two posts of Members — Finance and Investment and Actuary — for Hyderabad-based Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority(IRDAI) nearly six months in advance. It is for the first time the government has started looking for the top posts in IRDAI much in advance. The regulator usually gets a replacement several months after the retirement of an official. The current IRDAI Chairman Debasish Panda was appointed nearly nine months after his predecessor retired.
Rakesh Joshi, Member, Finance and Investment, IRDAI, who had joined on March 22, 2022, will be retiring on December 2, 2023 after reaching 62. Parmod Kumar Arora, member, Actuary, IRDAI, who had joined on Jan 4, 2021 will be completing his three-year tenure on Jan 4, 2024. Arora will be 58 at the time of
completing his three-year stint at the IRDAI. The government had selected State Bank of India (SBI) Managing Director Swaminathan Janakiraman as a Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India in June.
According to the existing regulations, a member can continue till the age of 62 while the Chairman can hold office till 65. The IRDAI, headed by chairman Debasish Panda, chairman, has currently five posts of members. Before Panda took over in March 2022, senior officials of PSU insurers were a preferred lot for all posts of members except Actuary. Setting a new trend, Panda wanted dynamic professionals from the private sector only as members that led to the appointments of Joshi, whose last job was in SBI Caps and Thomas Devasia, (Member, Non-Life), who was working with an international insurance broking firm Marsh India.
However, BC Patanaik, a former Managing Director of Life Insurance Corporation, was suddenly inducted as Member (Life) in April after the post had lied vacant for almost a year. Now, it is to be seen whether public sector unit officials will be considered for the two posts, sources said. The applicants should have a minimum of two years of residual service as on the date of vacancy — the applicant’s age should not exceed 60 years on the said date. The last date for receipt of applications for both the posts is August 10. A Whole- time Member gets consolidated pay and allowances of Rs 4 lakh per month.
For the Member (Actuary), an applicant should preferably be Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of India (IAI) or Institute and Faculty of Actuaries in the UK (IFA) or Institute of Actuaries of Australia or Society of Actuaries in US or Canadian Institute of Actuaries, Canada.
However, for both the positions, applicants should preferably have at least 25 years’ experience in the area of finance and investment, with a minimum of three years’ experience at a senior level, not below the rank of a chief general manager of the Reserve Bank of India or equivalent thereto in other financial institutions or regulatory bodies. Applicants from the government should preferably have worked at least at the level of Additional Secretary to the Government of India or its equivalent level. An applicant from the public sector official should have worked at a level which is at least one level below the board, whereas a private sector applicant should have worked at the level of functional head at a level below the board. Similarly, an academician should preferably have worked at least as professor in the department or faculty concerned.
(The writer is George Mathew.)
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