The 16th Global Conference of Actuaries (GCA) organised by the Institute of Actuaries of India (IAI) was inaugurated with a key note address by Mr. T. S. Vijayan, Chairman IRDA. With the governments across the world introducing reforms to sustain and push growth, the forum provides a platform to discuss the opportunities and challenges that arise due to changing economic and business landscape.
Inaugurating the conference, IRDA Chairman Mr. T.S. Vijayan spoke on how insurance industry has benefitted by the actuarial profession as it is able to identify and mitigate the risks, conduct long-term forecast and uphold policy holder’s interest. Mr. Vijayan shared his thoughts on how Indian insurance market is growing higher than the economic growth and how talent development needs to keep pace with the demand from the industry.
“The demand of actuaries is increasing, whether in the life insurance industry, non-life insurance industry or even outside insurance industry. Because actuaries are able to take a long term view, they understand economic scenario better and participate and support the decision making process,” said Mr. T.S. Vijayan.
Mr. M. Karunanidhi, President of IAI traced the development of the Indian Actuarial Profession to the present and outlined the strategies for shaping the future landscape of the Indian Actuarial Profession and insurance market.
“Since the privatization followed a prolonged period of nationalization, the supply of talent in actuarial profession had to be built almost from the scratch. The supply side reacted decently well to the demand and we had significant jump in our student membership,” said Mr M Karunanidhi, President of the Institute of Actuaries, at the Global Conference of Actuaries in Mumbai.
IAI believes that in the changing economic scenario, actuarial services could be utilised in other industries as well.
Dilip Chakraborty, Chairman, 16th GCA Organizing Group commented: “We also need actuaries to diversify in other areas like risk management, investment areas where actuarial skills will be useful and world over they are used for the same, In India we need to do that.”
‘Evolving Frontiers, Exciting Prospects,’ is the central theme for the 16th GCA held at the Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre Hotel, Powai on 17th and 18th February, 2014. Spread over 10 sessions, the key themes at the GCA revolve around topics related to Life Insurance, General Insurance, Health & Care Insurance and Pensions, Employee Benefits, Social Security.
The GCA organised annually since 1999 is a major event attracting stakeholders in the Insurance and financial sectors including actuaries and non-actuaries, both as speakers and participants. Since the 13th GCA in Feb, 2011 the event has taken somewhat different scale reaching out to global audience in more ways than one. This has to be seen in the backdrop of India being an attractive destination for global actuarial services delivery - about 1,000+ actuarial resources work on actuarial deliverables that originate from countries other than India. This is aside from the fact that almost all the insurers in India are joint ventures between domestic and global players and there is a strong representation of global players in both the consulting and reinsurance spheres. The 16th GCA builds further on the theme of globalization in terms of the subjects being debated and the speakers who will participate.
Mr. T. S. Vijayan, Chairman IRDA, Mr. Vivek Kuruvila, Head of Life and Health Client Markets, India, Swiss Re, Mr. J. Karunanidhi, President, IAI, Robert Burr, Head of Life and Health, Asia, Siwss Re, K. Subrahmanyam, Chair – IAI Advisory roup on Peer Stakeholder and International Relations, David Hare, President, Institue & Faculty of Actuaries (UK) were some of the eminent panellists who participated in the 15th GCA.
Having underscored the message that in these tough times, “The Insurance firms can survive and grow”, the 16th GCA is truly global event having witnessed participation of over 700 delegates.
