The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) is the insurance regulatory body in India that was constituted by an act of Parliament in 1999. IRDAI operates from its headquarters in Hyderabad, Telangana and regulates and promotes the development of the insurance industry in India. It is led by a chairman and has 10 members, including whole-time and part-time members, who are appointed by the Government of India. IRDAI's mission is to protect policyholders' interests and ensure the orderly growth of the insurance sector for the benefit of Indian citizens.

1. Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority
of India
(बीमा विनियामक और विकास प्राधिकरण)

2. Our Mission
"To Protect the interests of the policyholders, to
regulate, promote and ensure orderly growth of the
insurance industry and for matters connected
therewith or incidental thereto. "

3. Mission
MISSION STATEMENT OF THE AUTHORITY
Ø To protect the interest of and secure fair treatment to policyholders;
Ø To bring about speedy and orderly growth of the insurance industry (including
annuity and superannuation payments), for the benefit of the common man, and to
provide long term funds for accelerating growth of the economy;
Ø To set, promote, monitor and enforce high standards of integrity, financial soundness,
fair dealing and competence of those it regulates;
Ø To ensure speedy settlement of genuine claims, to prevent insurance frauds and other
malpractices and put in place effective grievance redressal machinery;
Ø To promote fairness, transparency and orderly conduct in financial markets dealing
with insurance and build a reliable management information system to enforce high
standards of financial soundness amongst market players;
Ø To take action where such standards are inadequate or ineffectively enforced;
Ø To bring about optimum amount of self-regulation in day-to-day working of the
industry consistent with the requirements of prudential regulation.

4. Composition of Authority
As per the section 4 of IRDAI Act' 1999, Insurance Regulatory and Development
Authority of India (IRDAI, which was constituted by an act of parliament) specify the
composition of Authority
The Authority is a ten member team consisting of
(a) A Chairman;
(b) five whole-time members;
(c) four part-time members,
(all appointed by the Government of India)

5. Duties, Powers and Functions of IRDAI
Section 14 of IRDAI Act, 1999 lays down the duties, powers and functions of
IRDAI.
Subject to the provisions of this Act and any other law for the time being in force,
the Authority shall have the duty to regulate, promote and ensure orderly growth
of the insurance business and re-insurance business.
1. Without prejudice to the generality of the provisions contained in sub-
section (1), the powers and functions of the Authority shall include, -
 Issue to the applicant a certificate of registration, renew, modify, withdraw,
suspend or cancel such registration;
 protection of the interests of the policy holders in matters concerning assigning of
policy, nomination by policy holders, insurable interest, settlement of insurance
claim, surrender value of policy and other terms and conditions of contracts of
insurance;
 specifying requisite qualifications, code of conduct and practical training for
intermediary or insurance intermediaries and agents
 specifying the code of conduct for surveyors and loss assessors;
 promoting efficiency in the conduct of insurance business;
 promoting and regulating professional organisations connected with the insurance
and re-insurance business;

6.  levying fees and other charges for carrying out the purposes of this Act;
 calling for information from, undertaking inspection of, conducting enquiries
and investigations including audit of the insurers, intermediaries, insurance
intermediaries and other organisations connected with the insurance business;
 control and regulation of the rates, advantages, terms and conditions that may
be offered by insurers in respect of general insurance business not so
controlled and regulated by the Tariff Advisory Committee under section 64U of
the Insurance Act, 1938 (4 of 1938);
 specifying the form and manner in which books of account shall be maintained
and statement of accounts shall be rendered by insurers and other insurance
intermediaries;
 regulating investment of funds by insurance companies;
 regulating maintenance of margin of solvency;
 adjudication of disputes between insurers and intermediaries or insurance
intermediaries;
 supervising the functioning of the Tariff Advisory Committee;
 specifying the percentage of premium income of the insurer to finance schemes
for promoting and regulating professional organisations referred to in clause
(f);
 specifying the percentage of life insurance business and general insurance
business to be undertaken by the insurer in the rural or social sector; and
 exercising such other powers as may be prescribed

7. Profile of Top Management

8. Chairman
Mr. T S Vijayan
(2013-20__)

9. Mr. T S Vijayan took charge as Chairman of Insurance Regulatory & Development
Authority of India in February 2013.
Since then Mr. Vijayan has been playing a key role in various initiatives for enhancing
insurance awareness and making insurance affordable to all sections of population. He
has also taken various measures for optimum utilization of technology in the insurance
space.
These initiatives include launching Insurance Repository System in India which enables
issuance and maintenance of insurance covers in electronic mode – utilizing the existing
Customer Service Centre (CSC) network to market specified insurance products so that
this wide network of Government promoted IT enabled community centers can be
leveraged to take insurance services to every corner of the country; opening up new
channels of insurance distribution by allowing banks to act as insurance brokers and
enhancing scope of services offered by web aggregators.
Recognizing the vital role played by agriculture and allied sectors in the Indian economy
and the need for viable and tailor-made insurance covers to large sections of small and
medium farmers, Mr. Vijayan has contemplated effective use of geomatric and remote
sensing technology in insurance models and is also coordinating with the Central and
State Governments, the insurance industry and reinsurers in addressing concerns of
adequate insurance cover for natural disasters.

10. Mr. Vijayan represents the Asian Region on the Executive Committee of the International
Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) apart from being a member of its Technical
and Implementation Committees.
Prior to joining IRDA, in a career spanning around three decades, Mr. Vijayan worked in
various capacities in the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), established under a
statute of Parliament of India while nationalizing the life insurance business in 1956. The
LIC was the sole life insurance provider in the country prior to opening up of the sector in
1999. He finally took over as Chairman of LIC of India in 2006, and was in that position
for 5 years.
He has played an active role as a Director on boards of various companies, both national
and international.
Mr. T S Vijayan pursued his education in Kerala and holds a special graduate degree from
Kerala University. He also holds a Diploma in Management.
Mr. Thai Salas Vijayan was born on 25th February 1953 at Kalliyoor, Kerala to Mr. Salas and
Mrs. Loise Thai. His spouse’s name is Mrs. Gladis Vijayan and they have a daughter and a
son.

11. MEMBERS

12. (Mr. P J Joseph)
Mr. P J Joseph has taken charge as Member (Non-Life), IRDAI on 29th March, 2016.
Mr. Joseph, a graduate in business management, joined the General Insurance
Corporation of India – then a holding company of the four public sector general
insurance companies – in the year 1979. After the initial training, his services were
transferred to the Mumbai based general insurer – The New India Assurance
Company Limited. Mr. Joseph worked for 29 years with ‘New India’ and held many
executive and leadership positions in India and abroad, the last position held being
that of the Managing Director of The New India Assurance Company (Trinidad &
Tobago) Limited, West Indies.
Mr. Joseph held the position of General Manager in
Chennai based general insurer – United India Insurance Company Limited from
February 2009 to October 2012. Mr. P. J. Joseph was appointed as Chairman-cum-
Managing Director of Agriculture Insurance Company of India Limited in October
2012 and has steered the Company during the period of transition in the Indian
crop insurance set up, from an administered pricing regime to an actuarial pricing
regime.

13. (Mr. Nilesh Sathe)
Mr. Nilesh Sathe has taken over charge as Member(Life) on 1.7.2015. Before
joining IRDAI, he was CEO and Director of LIC Nomura Mutual Fund AMC for a
period of three years. Before that he headed the Northern Zone of LIC of India as
Zonal Manager, in-charge of Marketing and Administration of seven states and one
Union Territory in the North spreading from J&K to Rajasthan. He held various
positions in LIC of India, as Executive Director of a Marketing Channel, Chief
(Pension & Group Schemes Dept.) and Sr. Divisional Manager of two prestigious
Divisions of Mumbai. He worked with Bank of India and Canara Bank for over 5
years before joining LIC Of India as a Direct Recruit Officer. He brings with him a
rich experience of over 3 decades in the Banking, Insurance & Mutual Fund
Industry.
Mr. Sathe is a post graduate in Commerce from G.S. College of Commerce
& Economics, Nagpur.
Mr. Sathe enjoys classical, vocal and instrumental music and associates
with Marathi theatre.

14. (Mrs. V. R. Iyer)
Mrs. V. R. Iyer joined Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India
(IRDAI) as Member (Finance & Investments) on 15.06.2015.
Prior to joining IRDAI, Mrs. Iyer was the Chairperson and Managing Director of
Bank of India and has powered the Bank ahead in various areas of business and
control. The Bank has seen quantum growth in business during her tenure and is a
leader in the PSU banking space.
She started her career in Union Bank of India in December 1975. She has
rich and varied exposure to branch banking, having headed very large branches in
Mumbai.
She was instrumental for setting up the Risk Management Department in
2000, inter alia, putting in place various Risk Policies, developing Risk measures
and structuring the reporting framework. In 2006-2007, she was responsible for
bringing all the branches of Union Bank on a single Core Banking platform and
later on went to head both the IT and Risk Management Verticals of the Bank, as its
General Manager. She was also instrumental in the Bank expanding to Hong Kong,
China and Dubai.

15. In September 2010, Mrs. Iyer was elevated as Executive Director of Central
Bank of India. During her tenure in Central Bank, she oversaw Credit, HR, IT,
Treasury, Risk Management and Credit Monitoring. She also spearheaded
implementation of Core Banking in that Bank, as well as rolling out Alternate
Delivery Channels and other initiatives on the Technology front.
Mrs. Iyer, in addition, held the following Board level positions in various
Organisations :
Ø Director – New India Assurance Co. Ltd.
Ø Non-Official Director – Export-Import Bank of India.
Ø Alternate Chairperson of Finance Committee – NIBM
Ø Non-Executive Chairperson – STCI Finance Ltd.
Ø Chairperson – STCI Primary Dealer Ltd.
Ø Director & Chairperson, BOI AXA Investment Managers Pvt. Ltd.
Ø Director & Chairperson, Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co. Ltd
Ø Chairman– IBA Committee on Risk Management and Basel
Implementation.
Ø Director in Indo-Zambia Bank Ltd.
Ø Member of Advisory Committee on Mutual Funds, SEBI.
Ø Chairman, BOI Merchant Capital Ltd.

16. (Ms. Pournima Gupte)
Pournima Gupte joined the Insurance Regulatory and Development
Authority of India as the Member (Actuary) in January 2015.
She has been working in the Indian Insurance Industry for more than 30
years in various capacities in public as well as private life insurance
companies. This includes eight years tenure as Appointed Actuary in private
life insurance companies and deputation to London Branch of LIC of India for
four years.
Pournima is a Fellow of Institute of Actuaries of India. She holds a degree in
Statistics from the University of Mumbai.

17. Mr. D D Singh joined Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) as a
whole-time Member (Distribution), on 20th May, 2013.
Prior to joining IRDA, Shri D.D Singh was Zonal Manager LIC of India South Zone
Chennai; and was in charge of Insurance Activities of the Life Insurance behemoth LIC
of India in the states of Tamilnadu Kerala & Pondicherry. Shri D D Singh was also
Zonal Manager of South Central Zone earlier and was in charge of Insurance Activities
of LIC of India in Andhra Pradesh & Karnataka states.
Mr. D.D Singh joined Life Insurance Corporation as a Direct Recruit Officer in
1977. He has experience in Marketing for more than 16 years and in Information
Technology for more than a decade. He had set up the Health Insurance Department
in LIC of India and was the first Executive Director of Health Insurance Department in
LIC of India.
Shri D.D Singh holds Masters Degree in Public Administration and Masters in
Business Administration with specialization in Marketing. He has attended various
training sessions organized in India & abroad including Training at Indian Institute of
Management Lucknow; Indian School of Business in Hyderabad; Foundation for
Advancement of Life & Insurance around the World (FALIA) Japan;
Mr. D.D Singh is an avid reader of books and has interest in music.

18. Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI)
is an autonomous apex statutory body which regulates and develops
the insurance industry in India. It was constituted by a Parliament of
India act called Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority
Act, 1999 and duly passed by the Government of India.
The agency operates from its headquarters
at Hyderabad, Telangana where it shifted from Delhi in 2001.IRDA
batted for a hike in the foreign direct investment (FDI) limit to 49 per
cent in the insurance sector from the erstwhile 26 percent. The FDI
limit in insurance sector was raised to 100% in June 2016

19. Website of IRDAI
www.irdai.gov.in