IRDAI headless amid Omicron concerns

HYDERABAD: At a time when the country is gearing up to tackle the Omicron variant, the top position at one of the key regulatory institutions of the country, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), has been lying vacant.
The insurance sector regulatory body, which played a key role during the Covid first and second waves by directing insurers to come up with specialised Covid-19 policies, has been headless for over seven months now.
During the pandemic, IRDAI had also made timely interventions on issues such as issuance of electronic policies, allowing payment of premiums in instalments by policyholders as well as directing insurance players to approve cashless in a stipulated period, among others.
Outgoing IRDAI chairperson, SC Khuntia, had vacated the chair on May 6, 2021, and the government had called for applications setting May 29, 2021, as the deadline but it has fallen silent after that.
“This shows the irresponsible attitude of the government and how lightly they take the insurance sector in this country… Moreover, they tend to appoint IAS officers, who take a couple of years to understand the industry and by the time the person is ready to perform, his time is up. In Khuntia’s case, they could have given him an extension as it is pandemic time,” said an industry expert.
IRDAI has had five chairmen since its inception -- N Rangachary (1996-2003), CS Rao (2003-08), Hari Narayan (2008-13), TS Vijayan (2013-18) and SC Khuntia -- of which only TS Vijayan has an industry background while the rest are bureaucrats. Interestingly, Khuntia has had the shortest tenure as IRDAI chairman.
In fact, N Rangachary said it is time for Centre to review the regulatory body to see how it can contribute towards the development of the insurance industry. Meanwhile, insurance sector industry bodies rued the lackadaisical attitude of government in not filling up the top post has led to no new reforms this year.
“Letters written by various associations have not been replied…many of the new insurer licenses are pending. Also, there has been no decision on the three PSUs that are having a bad solvency margin of below 1.5 due to which there have been a lot of complaints about non-settlement of claims purely because of lack of money,” an industry source said.
To qualify for the top job at IRDAI, aspirants from the public sector would need to have at least 30 years of work experience. They should have worked as secretary to the government of India or its equivalent level at the Centre or state level.
On the other hand, applicants from the private sector would need to have work experience as the CEO or equivalent of a large financial institution. The IRDAI chairperson is entitled to a consolidated pay and allowances of Rs 4.5 lakh per month.