Chennai, Dec 20 (IANS) Mumbai-based Rs.5,516-crore premium New India Assurance Company Ltd - one of the four government-owned general insurance companies - has remained headless for the past two and a half months.
“At a time when the non-life insurance sector is witnessing severe competition, public sector New India Assurance Company is rudderless despite a panel of executives having been selected for the top position long before the retirement of B.Chakrabarti Sept 30,” J.Gurumurthy, secretary of All India Insurance Employees Association (AIIEA), told IANS.

The normal practice is to transfer the senior most among the chairmen-cum-managing directors (CMD) of the three other public sector general insurance - National Insurance, Oriental Insurance and United India Insurance - as the chief of New India, which is the industry leader.

An industry source told IANS that two - N.S.R.Chandraprasad and R.K.Kaul - were chosen by the selection panel. Chandraprasad was posted as National Insurance’s CMD in June.

As per the convention, M.Ramadoss of Oriental Insurance should have been asked to head New India with Kaul replacing him as CMD of Oriental Insurance.

As an interim arrangement, A.R.Sekar, general manager of New India, has been appointed the acting CMD of New India.

When contacted, sources close to Ramadoss said he has been asked to take over as the CMD of New India and orders are expected to be issued in a week.

According to officials, the government is strangely indifferent towards its four non-life insurance companies at a time when they are stealing a march over private sector.

In the eight-month period of the current fiscal ending November 2009, the four government-owned general insurers have procured a premium income of Rs.13,128 crore, posting an impressive growth of 11.05 over the same period last year.