NIA starts new courses in insurance

Move To Bridge Gap Between Supply And Demand For Insurance Executives

NIA pass out Aftab Khan (right) receives the director’s gold medal from Ezzat Bary and K.K. Srinivasan at the 3rd convocation of the NIA on Sunday. Also seen are (Left to right) K.C. Mishra, Smita Totade, D.K. Mehrotra and Mangesh Patwardhan
Pune: Sample this. The insurance industry in India employs 45 lakh people, directly or through agencies, with the management executives constituting three per cent of this vast workforce. A recent survey by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has projected the requirement of another 27 lakh manpower for the insurance sector by 2012. Demand for executives is pegged at three per cent level. K.C. Mishra, director of the Pune-based National Insurance Academy (NIA), explained, “The CII projection means an incremental growth at over 50 per cent of the existing workforce whereas, the supply possibility by the current rate is barely 5 lakh personnel by 2012.” The demand-supply gap is “huge”, Mishra said and added that bridging the same would take a Herculean effort. “By 2012, insurance and intermediary sector companies are expected to go up from the present 42 to 50 and from 180 to 210 respectively,” he said. Against this backdrop, the NIA, which is an apex training and research institution for insurance and related areas in the Afro-Asian region, has launched a slew of initiatives to partially bridge the gap for insurance executives. An Indo-British MBA course in financial skill development; a school for product developers; finishing schools for executives; and MBA-equivalent accreditation for 200-odd training modules offered by the academy, form part of this elaborate exercise, Mishra told TOI on Sunday. The NIA, set up by public-sector insurance companies with the support of Ministry of Finance, runs a couple of schools in insurance management (NIA-SOM) and executive education (NIA-SEE), which held their third and first convocation ceremonies, respectively, on Sunday. Mishra said, the academy has tied up with the Park Lane College at Leeds University, UK, to offer the one-year post-graduate (PG) level MBA at its Balewadi campus here from January 1, 2009. “The focus will be on social insurance related to health, micro-finance, pension, unorganised pension etc., besides a programme for young executives to mature as senior managers,” he said. The UK-India Education Research Initiative, a joint council of the British and Indian Prime Ministers, has extended an initial fund of Rs 40 lakh for the joint MBA course. The All India Council for Technical Education has approved 120 seats and the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has given an ‘A’ rating to the course, he said. “NIA and Leeds University have jointly worked out the course syllabus that stands scrutinised by the HRD Ministry and the UK High Commission,” he added. Mishra said, entry to the joint MBA course would take place at three levels viz. employees from the UK insurance firms with more than two years experience can seek admission, so can employees from Indian insurance firms with more than two years of service. An online exam, conducted by the Institute of Global Insurance Education (IGIE), which is an international consortium, will be the third option. The admission process would completed in October/November. With 97 per cent of the insurance workforce falling in the support segment such as surveyors, self-sustaining agents etc., an NIA school for product developers (NIA-SPD) is being started on a franchisee basis at the Balewadi campus. This is critical to insurance firms’ attempt to reach the untapped semi-urban and rural markets by designing innovative products and imaginative marketing. Similarly, finishing schools for young graduates to transform them into insurance executives are being started in foreign locations including Dubai, Thailand and West Africa, he said. The academy has got 200 of its training modules of varying durations, accredited as equivalent of the MBAs. “Those undertaking a specified number of training modules would be exempt from classroom studies for MBA,” he said. Smita Totade, NIA’s PG programme co-ordinator, said that beginning 2008-09, the NIA-SOM student intake has been increased from 60 to 75 seats and the MBA course too has gone through a major change. “We have now made project-based life as well as general insurance studies mandatory instead of students taking either one of these areas. They would further select either one of the functional specialisation in marketing, finance, HR and infotech,” she said. In all, 59 students from the NIASOM and four from the NIA-SEE were awarded degrees at the convocation ceremony.

Source: Vishwas Kothari Times News Network