Malay Kumar Poddar joined as Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Agriculture Insurance Company of India Limited on 18th December 2019. He started with General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC), Mumbai, as a generalist officer in 1986. After initial training in all trades of General Insurance, he was inducted into Crop Insurance Department of GIC. He worked in GIC Crop Insurance Department for almost 18 years and served in six different states of India as State In-charge.
After formation of Agriculture Insurance Company of India (AICI) in 2002-03, he joined the newly formed Company in 2003-04.
Initially he was not very keen to join AICI,as he was not very sure like many of his colleagues in those days, as to how AICI would take shape in days to come. Call it good providence, he chose to stay with AICI and that was the defining moment of his life. He served there for almost 15 years and became General Manager in 2014. In 2018, he moved on to National Insurance Company Limited at Kolkata as General Manager. At NIC, he oversaw Agriculture, Aviation, Liability and Miscellaneous lines of business and led the digital marketing initiative of the Company.
He fondly remembers his early days with GIC and his association with Mr.D.K.Pant, who was GM HR in those days at GIC. “He goaded me to stick with Crop Cell given my background in Agriculture”.recalls Malay Poddar with a glint in his eyes.
“He was there in the crop cell. He applied himself to the job sincerely and absorbed the intricacies and ramifications of crop insurance as critical insurance scheme to protect and promote nation’s economy. He did well to be identified as a key person, so much so, that when most of these cells were dismantled, he along with a few competent persons continued working. He was very sharp and quick on uptakes to make a mark to get charted on the graph. He knew his task well and implemented some crucial schemes successfully to stamp his authority. I remember, as some of these issues were handled by me as MD, GIC in 1998-99” reminisced fondly, Mr.B.D. Banerjee, the former CMD of The Oriental Insurance Co.Ltd.
During his career in Agriculture Insurance, he was deeply involved in development and implementation of various Crop Insurance Schemes and products introduced by Government of India, GIC and AICI. He has been closely associated with International Research Organizations,World Bank Group and Global Reinsurers working in the field of climate change and risk management in agriculture. He has served as a Member of Task Force on NITI Aayog’s(National Institute for Transforming India) Crop Insurance Committee.
Malay graduated from Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya or Bidhan Chandra Agricultural University in 1985. His academic background as an Agricultural Economics stood him in good stead in his career ascendancy. He is also a Fellow of Insurance Institute of India. His pursuit of post-graduation degree was cut short when he landed up the job of GIC. Infact, he got the Junior Fellowship of Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) in 1985 for the same.
A quintessentially Bengali Bhadrolok (gentleman), Malay loves music. He is an ardent admirer of Pandit Bhimsen Joshi. Among the new singers, he likes the renditions of Kaushiki Chakraborty, the well-known Indian classical vocalist. He is also a keen devotee of Ramakrishna Mission.
