Meet Arun Chandra Mukherji, the grand old man of India's insurance industry

Says when we found we had to shut the business of selling polices to people, we turned to reinsurance

Just two steps into a simple single storey building in Salt Lake, Kolkata, sits the live history of insurance in India. It’s an autumn morning when I ring the bell for Arun Chandra Mukherji, expecting the nonagenarian to take a while to open the door. He surprises me, appearing instantly.

“You will live a hundred years,” he tells me cheerfully. Before I can think of a suitable comeback, the former chairman of New India Assurance Company escorts me to the living room. I marvel that he did not once wince while climbing the steps. Many stop doing so way before his