Inexplicable Exits And Stop-Gap Moves

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[<p>Succession in corporate India has its share of problems, but the same in government-owned companies is strange. Take Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), India's largest insurance firm by many a mile. In the past few days, the government announced that Rakesh Singh, an IAS official, would be interim chairman for three months. (He also has additional charge of National Bank For Agriculture And Rural Development, or Nabard). The man he is replacing, T.S. Vijayan, has about two years of service left, but is being demoted to managing director.<br><br>What is odd is that usually the government has a reservoir of talent it can draw upon. Yet it has been unable to find one that fits the bill for LIC. True, there has been a recent reshuffle of the senior-most bureaucrats in some ministries; also true, the Congress is fighting elections in no less than five states, and is under the microscope for scandals in the conduct of the Commonwealth Games and 2G spectrum allocations, so it may be occupied elsewhere.<br><br>But LIC is the biggest financial institution in India that collects and invests nearly Rs 60,000 crore each year in insurance premiums. Its investments can move markets, and managing a portfolio of about Rs 12 lakh crore is a gargantuan task. This is more than adequate reason for the government to ensure that a successor to Vijayan is found quickly.<br><br>What makes this even more complicated is that Vijayan still has two years left before he retires; he joined LIC in 1977 in the marketing division. No rationale for this decision has been provided, though there is considerable speculation about the losses — this is unconfirmed — that some of his decisions may have caused. Exits, like successions, should be graceful.<br><br>(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 16-05-2011)</p>