Four executive directors of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) have been shortlisted to take over the key posts at the state-owned corporation.
M M Mukerjee (zonal manager, Hyderabad), S C Jain (director, management development centre), S K Sakhuja (director, finance and accounts) and S V Mathur (zonal manager, western zone) are in the race for the positions of managing director and chairman of the corporation.
The interviews were to be conducted by the finance ministry last week, but have been postponed.
The four were shortlisted from the 26 executive directors at LIC for the sole reason that they alone qualify as per the norms laid down by the government wherein they have at least two years residual service.
A Ramamurthy (managing director) is the current in charge since G N Bajpai was appointed to head the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) last month. Ramamurthy, however, is slated to retire in July this year and hence, his term will be temporary. The other managing director N C Sharma will also be retiring in October and hence the need for the ministry to finalise who will head the new team at LIC as old guards retire.
Apart from a new team on the top, most of the department heads are also due to retire shortly or have already retired earlier this fiscal. J S Bhandari, director-inspection, will be retiring in March along with R Chandrasekaran, executive director-personnel, HRD. D Mishra, executive director-pension & group, will be retiring in April. K S Dey, executive director-real estate, will be stepping down in August, and N P Bali, director-publicity, retires in December.
A whole new team is expected to take over as the 1942 batch retires this year. Senior officials at LIC said:
