They do the maths well

With the insurance sector opening up, the demand for actuaries is increasing in India.

Experts in assessing the financial impact of tomorrow's uncertain events and enabling financial decisions by analysing the past, modeling the future, assessing risks involved and communicating the results in financial terms, actuaries are in demand like never before.

And why not? Qualified actuaries can get salaries up to Rs 1 lakh per month. And there's a huge demand-supply gap. In fact, there are only 250 qualified actuaries in India, of which approximately 75 are based abroad. Around 60 per cent of the ones working in India are in the age group of 60 and the rest fall in the age group of 50 years.

"The insurance sector has improved a lot. In India, there is a huge gap in demand-supply in the insurance sector itself. In the early days, actuaries had a limited role to play and most of them were employed only with LIC. With the insurance sector opening up in 2001, the situation has improved a lot but today also, there is a vacancy of 20-30 per cent of actuaries in the insurance companies," Says Dr R Kannan, president, Actuarial society of India (ASI).

However, the situation is improving as students are increasingly taking up actuary as a career. The actuary's skills in analysis and modeling of problems in finance, risk management and product design are used extensively in the areas of insurance, pensions, investment and more recently in wider fields such as project management, banking and health care.

Within these sectors, actuaries perform a wide variety of roles such as design and pricing of product, financial management and corporate planning.

Actuarial skills are also valuable for any business managing long-term financial projects both in the public and private sectors like life insurance, general insurance, health insurance, re-insurance companies. Consultancy investment firms too have plenty of jobs to offer.

The importance has not been lost on management schools. For instance, after running a diploma programme in actuarial sciences for three years, the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) has enhanced it to an MBA in Actuarial Science.

Says G Anuradha professor in actuarial sciences with NMIMS, "The MBA (Actuarial Science) programme has been designed to address the needs of the economy in view of the acute shortage of actuaries arising from the increasing gap between demand and supply in India and the world over. And more and more students are taking it up."

But how far is actuary a preferred career option? Says Kannan, "The role performed by actuary was not in the knowledge of many and has opened up in the recent years. In fact, in the last three years, 2000 students have been registering with the Actuarial Society of India on an average. The demand for actuaries in the market is going to be a little large but since it is a more intensive and prolonged course, (five years) students need a lot of patience and will to pursue it."

A course in actuarial science is rigorous and combines the use of statistics, mathematics, finance and economics for problem solving applications mainly in insurance, risk management and fund management.

Many courses also take into consideration the areas covered by professional examining bodies such as the Actuarial Society of India, Institute of Actuaries- UK and Society of Actuaries, USA.

The programme offered at NMIMS also covers subjects from the field of management and information technology. Though many universities have shown interest in starting a course in actuarial sciences, ASI has made it mandatory for the students to clear the preliminary exams done by ASI.

For the working lot in the insurance sector, the insurance companies are giving a lot of encouragement to in house actuarial students by providing them with on the job study purpose incentives like: books and training. Once they complete the course they are promoted too.

Though there are actuarial firms in India, one can work as an individual consultant too. In the corporate world, the actuaries are looked up with lot of credibility in the area of risk management. Given the high salaries, the career option is worth a thought.