Thursday, December 26, 2013

Guest Lecture by Mr. Chandrasekaran Ramamurthy

The SIMSREE students witnessed a guest lecture by Mr. Chandrasekaran Ramamurthy, Chief Reinsurance Strategist, Mahindra Insurance Brokers Limited on 26th Dec, 2013. Mr. Chandrasekaran has more than three decades of experience in domestic and international insurance and reinsurance industries, spanning India, UK and Middle East. Previously he has worked as Director, RCS Managing Consultants Private LimitedMember of IRDA Sub Committee, Senior DGM – Technical Operations, Kuwait Reinsurance Company, Kuwait, General Manager, GIC of India, Asst. General Manager, International Business Development, Manager, Aviation. He spoke in detail about ‘Insurance Sector in India’

Starting with a brief history of the sector, Mr. Chandrasekaran spoke about how the Indian Insurance business was in a nascent stage prior to the year 2000, as it was mainly restricted to the public sector. The period was marked by lack of marketing efforts and ineffective distribution practices. Post 2000, the insurance sector in India opened up for private players as well. From then on until now, it has grown by around 7 times. He opined that it is a sector with high growth potential. In terms of turnover, he expects it grow to INR 1 Lakh Crores by 2015, INR 3 Lakh Crores by 2020, and as high as INR 10 Lakh Crores by 2025. In short, the insurance sector in India is poised to touch great heights.




He further stated that if all the insurance companies in India aimed to contribute up to 1% of the GDP, it would be a big achievement for the insurance industry. He also sounded positive on the growth of reinsurance business in India, saying that India is soon to become ‘Reinsurance Hub of Asia’.  ‘Reinsurance’ means ‘Insurance for the Insurance Companies’

Delving into numbers to back his statements, he pointed out that there is a cap of only 26% on FDI in Insurance sector in India. This means that the remaining 74% of the Indian insurance pie is handled by only the domestic companies. There lies a huge opportunity of utilizing the money generated through insurance business for the development of Indian Economy. 

Moving on to a related and highly relevant topic of ‘Customer Complaints’, he said that like any other sector, there are unsatisfied customers in this sector as well. Most of the claims are related to motor and health insurances. The key areas of customer complaints are as follows:

i) Policy, Endorsement not received: 16%
ii) Display in claims settlement: 22%
iii) Policy Data Errors: 9%
iv) Repudiation of claim: 8%
v) Dispute in quantum of claim: 9%
vi) All other claims: 36%

The lecture was very beneficial as students gained a lot of insights regarding the insurance sector and its potential. Taking full advantage of the opportunity to interact with such a senior industry professional as Mr. Chandrasekaran, the students posed him a gamut of questions, to each of which he gave elaborate answers and explanations.

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