The Finance Ministry has finally appointed Subhash Chandra Khuntia as the new chairman of IRDAI. Lot of speculation has been going around since the past few months whether the new chairman should be from the life or non life industry or maybe some bureaucrat. The decision of the government to appoint a former IAS officer as the new chairman shows the willingness of the government to push hard its insurance reform agenda.
Recently in Budget the government has announced the launch of its National health Protection Scheme Ayushman Bharat wherein 5 lakh health insurance will be provided for the lower income group people. If implemented properly this scheme may become the largest government funded healthcare scheme in the world surpassing the healthcare scheme launched by the Obama administration. As the Elections are due in early 2019 Govt seems to be in a hurry to implement this flagship scheme.
The new chairman will have the challenge of implementing the government reforms as well as oversee the growth of the Insurance Industry as a whole. In view of recent banking frauds IRDAI will have to be very cautious about the investments being managed by the Insurance Companies. It needs to closely monitor the Investment guidelines and see that there is no deviation and there is strict control over insurance companies.
The recent remarks of the Securities Appellate Tribunal over the decision of IRDA had severely dented the image of IRDAI. The new chairman will have to take the responsibility to review the working of IRDAI and set new standards for proper and organized growth of the insurance industry.
The new chairman is academically very sound and seems to have vast experience in administration. Let’s hope that under his leadership IRDAI will play a positive role in the development of the insurance industry.
