Lars Lange, Secretary General of IUMI visited Mumbai on 18-19 June 2019 to meet GI Council Officials and marine underwriters of India.
Speaking in an All India Marine Underwriters’ meet on 19 June at Cricket Club of India, Lars spoke on the importance of Asia as key focus and growth area for IUMI. Stating that 29% of global marine insurance business is coming from Asia, he sees great potential for growth in the Indian marine insurance industry. He said that India is very close to his heart and it is very likely that important IUMI meetings and conferences will take place in India in the near future.
He gave a detailed presentation on IUMI’s areas of activity and how it is working to address global issues related to marine insurance. He thanked General Insurance Council for organizing the market meet and hoped that India will play a much bigger role in IUMI in times to come and strengthen the industry. He also spoke at length on IUMI’s vast data base, current issue and the fast-growing education programme.
Earlier Mr R Chandrasekaran Secretary General, General Insurance Council, in his keynote address welcomed Lars Lange and spoke on the importance of marine business and need to further improve the professional skills.
Stating that he himself started his career with marine insurance and it remains his deep interest even today, he urged the underwriters to take more and more interest in the subject and try to become member in IUMI Technical Committees.
To encourage this line of business, GI Council has started a special programme for skills development and advised to make use of the vast pool of knowledge and resources provided by IUMI. He further stated that the Indian market has taken some great initiatives to improve the underwriting of marine insurance and praised marine underwriters as a dedicated class.
There were excellent presentations by Indian underwriters on issues facing the industry in India.
Sibesh Sen of HDFC Ergo and Lalit Talan of New India made presentations on the “Changing face of logistics in India” and “Technological innovations in marine insurance”, respectively.
The presentations were followed by a lively panel discussion on “Marine Insurance in India - Challenging Times ahead!” moderated by Sanjiv Singh, Head marine at GI Council.
The panelists S. Balachandran, Head Marine - Tata AIG, R. Balasundaram, Executive VP, Global Insurance Brokers, Mr S N More, GM GIC Re, Mr B S Rath, MD Premier Brokers Ltd, Hong Kong, Aditya Suklikar, President, ICC Shipping Association (ICCSA), discussed and debated issues like the falling volume of marine business, use of technology in the marine insurance market, port led development as facilitator for growth of marine insurance, the impact of sanctions and trade restrictions.
The meeting ended with vote of thanks by Sibesh Sen.
