GIC chairman KC Mittal will call it a day on June 30 and shortly after that it will be the turn of U Mahesh Rao, the second managing director, to hang up his boots. This will render the apex insurance institution headless as the post of another managing directior has been lying vacant for some time after the retirement of D Swaminathan from the post. GIC has a provision for one chairman and two managing directors. Sources in the finance ministry say that New India Assurance's chairman-cum-managing director D Sengupta is being tipped for the GIC chairman's post. Sengupta, the youngest chairman of any insurance subsidiary (with five more years of service left), is said to be a nose ahead of National Insurance chairman-cum-managing director AN Poddar. Once Segupta's appointment is ratified by the cabinet committee, it will be sent to the Prime Minister's office (PMO) for finalclearance.

Meanwhile, the race to fill the vacancy caused by Sengupta's possible elevation to the GIC chairmanship has already begun at New India. The GIC subsidiary will develop a vacuum at the top as two of its four general managers retired a month back and the remaining two will follow suit over the next few months. Poddar is said to be a top contender for the New India slot and well ahead of SK Kanwar, chairman-cum-managing director of United India, the second largest subsidiary of GIC.

Kanwar was general manager of New India Assurance for almost two years before being sent to Chennai in October 1997 as chief of United India, which did not have a CMD for 18 months. Kanwar is one of the few old marketing hands left in the industry which has off late seen an exodus of talented officers.

Even though all three -- Poddar, Sengupta and Kanwar -- were simultaneously promoted to the rank of chairman, only Sengupta and Poddar actually became chairmen (and are thereby technically senior to Kanwar) as therewere only two vacancies for chairmanship.

In the new scheme of things which may bring Poddar to New India, his deputy in the Calcutta-based National Assurance, KN Bhandari, is likely to succeed him. Earlier, Bhandari -- a general manager -- who is due for promotion, was supposed to be placed as one of the managing directors of GIC. Now, it is proposed that TK Banerji, general manager in GIC, will be elevated as managing director of the institution. GIC's finance director PM Venkatasubramanian is expected to be promoted as the second manmaging director of the apex insurance institution.

Centre yet to fill up LIC MDs posts

The top slots at Life Insurance Corporation are headedg for a vacuum as the centre is yet to fill up the managing directors' posts. RN Tripathy, one of the two managing directors retired last week and the post of the second managing director is lying vacant for the last one-and-half years. As current chairman G Krishnamrthy is calling it a day by June-end, it is expected that thecentre will promote one of the managing directors.

Out of the five or six senior officials who can be appointed as the managing director and subsequently chairman, three have less than one year of service and none have more than two years of service.

The ministry of finance had stipulated a requirement of two years service to fill up the chairman's post. However, NM Govardhan can be appointed as chairman before Krishnamurthy, even though he has less than two years of service. The concession is owing to the fact that Govardhan was already member of the Insurance Regulatory Authority at the time of appointment.