Mumbai: Four public sector general insurers, namely New India Assurance, United India Insurance, National Insurance and Oriental Insurance have begun recruiting to appoint 1,500 officials and 5,000 clerks during the current financial year, industry sources said on August 11. "We need a huge number of people to keep pace with business growth.
Also, we want to spread our network to remote areas since we are actively participating in the forthcoming comprehensive financial inclusion plan which will be unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15," Chairperson of the General Insurance Public Sector Association (GIPSA) as well as New India Assurance CMD G Srinivasan said.
GIPSA is a group of four public sector general insurance companies. "As a whole, each of the four state-owned non-life insurance companies will recruit 1,000 officers and 10,000 agents on a yearly basis for the next five years from now on," Srinivasan said. "From the current year onwards, we will recruit 500 officers and 1,500 Class III staff on an yearly basis to man our huge number of micro-offices and fill up vacancies created due to retirement of officials," New India Assurance director Sanath Kumar said.
The total business of all four public sector non-life insurance companies put together, which was at Rs 42,000 crore in 2013-14 is expected to cross Rs 1 lakh-crore by 2020. "Non-life insurance industry is keeping pace with the banking industry while participating in the government's comprehensive financial inclusion agenda," the non-life insurance sector's industry body, General Insurance Council's Secretary General R Chandrasekharan said.
Though the Insurance Amendment Bill paving hike in foreign direct investment from 26 per cent to 49 per cent is yet to be passed in Parliament, insurance companies are already in preparation mode. "We will hire 300 officers and 600 staff during the current financial. However, my company is yet to arrive at the number of agents to be roped in during the current year," United India Insurance CMD Milind Kharat said.
