Smart People

V Ramakrishna, managing director of India Insure Risk Management Services, is in celebration mode. The reason is that his entrepreneurial venture is about to complete four years of existence.

After nearly two decades of working with companies like Bhel, Eicher and Satyam, Ramakrishna set up India Insure, the first licensed direct insurance broker in the liberalised Indian insurance market.

The company provides risk management and insurance broking services to corporates.

"Insurance companies globally do not deal directly with corporate clients. In fact, brokers handle 80 per cent of the global insurance transactions," says Ramakrishna. The opportunity lies in renewals, he adds.

According to him, corporates go in for annual renewal of contracts and a skilled insurance consultant can make a company opt for another plan.

Ramakrishna feels that companies have become keen on property, people and liability risk in the last three years, with 9/11 providing the impetus to the same.

India Insure has done business of around Rs 75 crore worth of premium in the current year and expects to witness 30-40 per cent growth in the next two-three years.

In the last four years about 190 players have entered this arena. Does that bother him? Not quite. "Earlier we had to do a lot of concept selling to increase awareness of our services, which is eliminated now, thanks to the competition," he says.

Ramakrishna is a chartered accountant whose last stint was with the infrastructure division of the Satyam Group as vice-president (finance).

Although he is based in Hyderabad, he is away for as much as 20 days a month, jet setting through the six branches of India Insure in different parts of India. After all that traveling, any extra time is spent with his kids.

Ramakrishna relishes the two-three-weeks' leave that he takes in a year which is spent with his family, usually in a hill resort.

His latest trip to the Himalayas was one of his most memorable ones. Ask him about his new year's resolution and pat comes the reply: "Two vacations a year."

HSBC's asset management company may be just over a year old but it has already become one of the fastest growing AMCs in India. With Rs 3,378 crore worth of assets under management already, its chief executive, Sanjay Prakash, has every reason to be proud.

After all, setting up the AMC from scratch to make it the 14th largest AMC in India is no mean feat. The AMC also provides advice to HSBC HGIF India Equity Fund, an open-ended fund with a humongous corpus of over Rs 3,000 crore.

The AMC is expected to come out with a portfolio manaement service in the second quarter this year, and hopes to harness the large section of high net worth individuals who are associated with HSBC.

Prakash says HSBC has a natural advantage in this arena as a significant portion of its clients falls under this category. He is equally upbeat on the stock markets.

"The positivitity in the economy, improved fundamentals, corporate results and currency outlook make for a delicious concoction," says Prakash.

He says the risk appetite of investors has started to rise as is reflected in the popularity of MIPs and equity funds.

However, Prakash warns that the indices may not always reflect the fundamentals and should not be relied on as the true barometer of the markets.

After completing his graduation, Prakash got his first break with ANZ Grindlays as a management trainee from where he rose to become the head of operations.

In the 15 years that he spent with ANZ Grindlays, he covered areas like retail banking operations, group audits and technical projects.

Terming the experience as memorable, Prakash says the exposure that he got from handling all the ANZ Grindlays branches in the Eastern region was fantastic.

Prakash is a keen sportsman, having represented West Bengal in squash and being a university-level tennis player. He says he is tired of the party circuit and prefers to spend time with his two daughters, whom he dotes on.