India'S Actuaries: At A Premium

All these are actuaries who are assiduously being wooed by Indian and global players. There's American Insurance Group, J Rothschild Associates, Canada Life and many more. With the insurance sector on the threshold of reforms, actuaries have become hot property. Their skills relating to forecasting probable events and assessing financial implications have become dear. They design insurance products, formulate premium tables, and even advise on investments. Ironically, just when almost every corporate is showing interest in the sector, there are only a handful of practicing actuaries left. And their number is fast dwindling.

Till about 10 years ago, India had 130 actuaries. In comparison, there are 2,500 actuaries in the UK and 10,000 in the US. Down to 100 currently, their headcount here is fast depleting. More than 75 actuaries are over the age of 65. Of these, only 20 are practising and seven are employed by the LIC. Known as fellows, most of them are the alumni of the Actuarial Society of London. While the oldest living actuary A Rajgopalan is 89 years, Padmaja, at 26, is the youngest. And what's more, almost all have signed the muster at LIC. In the last 15-20 years, nearly 35 actuaries retired from the insurance monolith.

Strangely, even as the list of retirees was growing, for youngsters, post-graduate degrees in computers, finance and management took precedence over actuarial science. In the last five years, only six students qualified as actuaries. Says leading consultant Naresh M Thanawala, partner of Thanawala Consultancy Services, With hardly any prospects for actuaries, there were few takers.

It has been an outcome of the demand-supply syndrome. Actuarial science is not a dying art, but it has had little opportunity to be known, says M G Dewan, 66, who was earlier chairman of LIC. Adds R M Mehta, It is such a restricted domain that there are very few who know what an actuary actually is.

Ever since the insurance sector was nationalised in 1956, LIC has been the only source of employment for actuaries. Their role was restricted to life insurance. Even today, the six LIC subsidiaries including General Insurance Corporation, Oriental Insurance and New India Assurance do not have a single actuary. Says Mehta, Abroad they work for life insurance, pension funds, general insurance and finance management; here they are only used for life insurance.

This has meant working in a government organisation like the LIC which has limited career growth. And becoming an actuary was the only way to the top. Take, for instance, S P Subhedar, an actuary by accident. At the age of 18, when he was told about the profession as a career prospect, Subhedar made a beeline for the dictionary. An actuary was defined as a clerk who calculates insurance premium. Nevertheless, once in LIC, he soon realised that pursuing actuarial science would give a boost to his career. He retired as managing director in 1995.

It was also one of the options for students majoring in maths. Padmaja, who became a full-fledged actuary last year, had a choice for post-graduation