PSU insurance firms creating goodwill to hire staff

Four government-owned general insurance companies are working to create goodwill to attract members, industry officials said here Tuesday.

"We are holding coaching classes in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. We will start such centres in other places also. We are doing this as a social service," K.V.V.S.N. Raju, assistant treasurer, All India Insurance Employees Association (AIIEA), told IANS over phone from Hyderabad.

"We are helping applicants fill the online form as there are complaints that the server is very slow," K. Govindan, joint secretary, General Insurance Employees All India Association (GIEAIA), told IANS.

"After two decades, the four companies are going in for mass recruitment. All these years the unions had been asking the companies to recruit people as there was no infusion of young blood in the employee roster," Govindan said.

The four companies - National Insurance, New India Assurance, Oriental Insurance and United India Insurance - have decided to recruit a total of 2,600 people in the assistant cadre.

National Insurance will hire 800 assistants while the other three companies will hire 600 each.

"Between 2013-2015, nearly 40 percent of class III/clerical cadre employees are expected to retire. Major recruitment happened during 1977-1980 when the sector was nationalised," Raju said.

The Kolkata-based National Insurance handles the recruitment process on behalf all the companies.

Graduates or those who have passed Class 12 with 60 percent marks (50 percent for ex-servicemen, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and differently-abled people) and with the knowledge of regional language can apply online logging into National Insurance's website.

The minimum age of the applicant is 18 years and the maximum is 28 years subject to exceptions for categories like SC, ST, other backward communities, ex-servicemen, differently-abled people and existing employees of the four companies.

The last date for applying online is 8 June, 2013.

Candidates who clear the objective written exam will be called for an interview and a computer proficiency test and final selection will be based on the performance in the three tests.