A year of reforms for insurance sector under Irdai's Debasish Panda

Irdai has also now provided more flexibility and autonomy to the boards of insurers in operational and financial decisions

The insurance sector rode the most turbulent wave of Covid-19 without anyone manning the chairman’s post at the apex body — Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India (Irdai) — and came out relatively unscathed. But the industry badly needed some reforms to propel it towards higher growth and increased insurance penetration.

That is what has happened in the past one year since Debasish Panda took over the Irdai chairman in March, after nearly 10 months of the position lying vacant.

The host of changes brought about in the past year have been aimed at improving the ease of doing business