After Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) chairman M R Kumar didn’t get a further extension to continue, the government is set to appoint a full-time chairman by June. The chairman is expected to be selected from among candidates available within the life insurer and would serve a term of around a year, reported the publication Livemint citing a finance ministry official.
There are also no plans to seek professionals from the wider industry to fill this coveted position this year, the report quoted the official as saying. “The process for selection of the new full-time chairman of LIC has been initiated and we will have a candidate to fill the post before the vacancy expected in June," the report quoted the official as saying.
In the past, the current chairman had received two extensions and was to continue till March 2023. Kumar was appointed chairman of LIC in 2019. As of now, LIC's MD Siddhartha Mohanty has been given an additional charge as the chairman for a period of three months from 14 March.
Mohanty will superannuate by 30 June, which has created the urgency to select the next chairman to prevent the absence of a full-time top executive in LIC. Siddhartha Mohanty was appointed as the MD on February 1st, 2021, replacing TC Suseel Kumar, who retired on January 31st, 2021.
The appointment of the new chairman is crucial as it comes at a time critical to support the corporation’s performance, especially with the tax amendments brought about in the union budget and the divestment of IDBI Bank.
The government is looking to revamp the structure of the country’s biggest life insurer by 2024 and go with the appointment of a chief executive officer (CEO), instead of a chairman, and four MDs who would report to the CEO. If this structure gets implemented according to the amendments to LIC Act carried in 2021, then the government may hire professionals outside of LIC as its CEO while the position of chairman would be removed.