Centre initiates process to appoint two full-time members on Irdai board

Both the appointments shall be made by the central govt on the recommendations of the Financial Sector Regulatory Appointment Search Committee.

The Centre has set in motion the process to appoint two full-time members for the actuarial and distribution position in the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai). 

Earlier, Sujay Banarji was the whole-time member for distribution in Irdai and Pournima Gupte was the actuarial member. Term of both the members will come to an end in January 2020. Gupte joined Irdai in 2015 and Banarji in 2018.

The posts that the government is looking to fill has a maximum five-year stint and comes with Rs 4 lakh monthly compensation and does not include the facility of a house and a car. These two positions are crucial for vetting insurance product proposals filed with the regulator. 

Besides the chairman, Irdai has five full-time members on its board. Three others are for life, non-life, and investment segments. K Ganesh is the member for life insurance, T L Alamelu is for non-life insurance, and Pravin Kutumbe is for finance and investment. 

For the whole-time actuarial member, the government has mandated that the candidate has to be a fellow from either the Institute of Actuaries of India, the UK, Australia, the US, or Canada. Also, the candidate cannot be beyond the age of 50 years to apply for the post of actuary in Irdai and has to have at least five years of experience in the area of actuarial functions.

Similarly, for the post of whole-time member in charge of distribution, the eligibility criteria set by the government includes at least 25 years of experience of post qualification, of which at least 15 years should be in the relevant field.

Moreover, government servants, who wish to apply for the position of the whole-time director for distribution, need to have worked at least at the level of additional secretary to the government of India, or its equivalent level in state governments.

And, public sector officials should have worked at least at one level immediately below the board level. Private sector employees wishing to apply for the post should have worked at the level of functional head, and for academicians applying for the post need to have worked at least as a professor. 

Both the appointments shall be made by the central government on the recommendations of the Financial Sector Regulatory Appointment Search Committee. 

“The selected candidate shall be required to resign or retire and be relieved from his/her current employment before joining Irdai,” the government notification reads.