# National Insurance Academy

The National Insurance Academy (NIA Pune also known as NIA) is an educational institution located in Pune, India. NIA was founded in 1980 by the Finance Department of the Indian government with patronage from LIC and the public insurance industry. NIA began an MBA program to diversify its educational offerings in 2004 with Dr. KC Mishra as the founder and director and Dr. RK Parchure, as MBA Coordinator, who was replaced by Dr. SD Totade.
After the tenure of Dr. K C Mishra, Dr. Prathap Oburai from IIM Ahmedabad served as the new Director. During his stint here, Dr. Oburai had promised the students to elevate the academy to the top 10 B-Schools of India with strong international collaborations. NIA runs a PGDM course through which it provides a dual specialization to students. (Insurance + Finance/Marketing/HR/IT).
A main source of income for the academy is arranged by IRDA in the form of Broker's training and examination programs. The MDP program for top executives of insurance companies is a major contributor to funds generated by NIA.

## Evolution of NIA

NIA was located in Mumbai until 1990 and moved to its campus to Pune in the early 1990s. The academy is now an integrated management school with training, education, publications, research, consultancy and regulatory advisory services. A few fields covered by the academy are Life Insurance, General Insurance, Reinsurance, Health Insurance, Crop Insurance, Credit Insurance, Pensions, Actuarial Services, Insurance Investment, market research for insurance companies, developing insurance institutions, leadership for succession planning, and insurance regulatory compliance.
The former Directors Late Dr. PS Palande and Kailash Chandra Mishra were instrumental in the recognition of the academy.

### Conceptual innovations

The academy has developed 7A framework for the organizational structure of insurance, 7P framework for the underwriting structure of insurance and 7E framework for the value structure of insurance.

### Institutional expansion

Apart from the mother institution NIA, the academy houses an MBA program NIASoM, a producer development program (NIASPD), a pension research program (NIAPRI). NIA is also the statutory examining body for insurance brokers in India as per IRDA Regulation. The academy is home to the historically famous Lloyd's Box symbolic of a Syndicate at old Lloyd's of London.

### History of Lloyd's Box

Lloyd's Box is essentially a set of historical Lloyd's Tables. The Lloyd's Box at National Insurance Academy was Michael Payne's box syndicate number 386. Michael Payne was a specialist non-US liability underwriter at Lloyds. It was installed in the old Lloyds; it was unique as it was the only non-square underwriting desk in Lloyds.
While adorning 1952 Lloyd's building it was acquired in 1970, and the esteemed box became a feature of the underwriting room at Lloyds Gallery level in the early 1970s. When Lloyds moved to their new building in approximately 1987, it was purchased by Robert Porter, the then managing director of E W Payne, and installed in E W Payne's boardroom at 8 Bridge Street Sydney.
Significantly, Rob Porter had brokered many pieces of Australian Liability business at that desk in the late 1970s and early 1980s; when it was relocated to Bridge Street, the insurance mighty and powerful enjoyed many good lunches at it in the EW Payne board room.
"When removed from the 1952 Lloyds building, the removal was overseen by the head waiter at the time who was delighted to know that it would continue service in Australia."
Rob Porter purchased the table by means of an offset brokerage deal between the QBE - E W Payne & Syndicate 386. The nominal value placed on it was AUD 25,000.
In 2006, the historical Lloyd's Box was presented as Guru Dakshina (a teacher's dues) to Dr. K.C. Mishra, the then Director of the National Insurance Academy, by Mr. Sanjay Kedia, the Principal Officer of Marsh at that time, who is currently the country head and Managing Director. Initially, the box was displayed in the National Insurance Academy Museum at Greenleaf Dome, which is named after the former Chairman of AT&T, who popularized the concept of "Servant Leadership." Eventually, this significant table was relocated to a special room named after Mr. B.K. Shah, one of just three legendary Indians inducted into the Insurance Hall of Fame in Ohio, United States. The other two honorees are Sir Joseph Arnould and Mr. G.S. Diwan, in whose names the NIA has dedicated academic spaces such as a lounge and an alumni room, respectively.

## NIA School of Management

NIASoM is the Management School of National Insurance Academy in Pune, India.

## Placements

For the placement of 2011-13 batch, all the four public sector general insurance companies visited the campus. Additionally, GIC Re and AIC also came for the placement. The students were offered posts of Administrative Officers in the public sector insurance companies.
They successfully maintain a 100% placement record year after year.
Some of the companies who visited NIA SoM for placements are D.E. Shaw & Co., SAP Labs, HDFC Life, Accenture Services, SBI General, SBI Life, Bajaj Alliance General & Life Insurance Companies, AIR Worldwide, Infosys Limited, Cognizant Business Consulting, Swiss Re, GIC Re, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), Wipro Technologies, Reliance General & Life Insurance, IFFCO Tokio General Insurance, ET Life Insurance, TCS, TATA-AIG General & Life, IndusInd Bank, Unit Trust of India Mutual Funds, Birla Sun Life Insurance, Kotak Life Insurance, IDBI Federal Life Insurance, Star Union Dai-chi, Max New York Life, Universal Sompo, GMR Group, HUL, Alliance Insurance Brokers, HCL Technologies, Tata CMC, ICICI Prudential, ICICI Lombard, Future Generali, HP, Aon, KM Dastur, Aegon Religare, Syntel, IBM, HDFC Ergo, Indiafirst Life Insurance, MetLife, ING Vysya, Marsh India Brokers, First Apex Technologies, Milliman Inc., L&T General Insurance, Raheja QBE, C2L Biz Solutions Private Limited, etc.

## NAAC accreditation

On 22 December 2007, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council, an autonomous body of the University Grants Commission (UGC) under the Ministry of HRD, Government of India, assigned the highest rating grade, "A," for the National Insurance Academy as an academic institution. As per the results of accreditation cleared in the 43rd Executive Committee Meeting held on 22 December 2007, National Insurance Academy has received the highest accreditation rating of NAAC, which is "Grade A within cumulative grade point average range of 3.01 to 4 read as Very Good and Accredited" which is amplified as "high level of academic accomplishment as accepted of an institution" with the academy securing 3.43 Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA).

### Institutional environment

National Insurance Academy (NIA), is located in Pune. It was established in the year 1980 under the aegis of the Ministry of Finance Government of India, LIC, GIC and the four public sector insurance companies. NIA is the jewel crafted by this one of a kind private public venture, and has been running executive development programs for the past 25 years. Recently, National Insurance Academy School of Management(NIASoM) has undergone thorough management and syllabus restructuring following international standards under the supervision of Dr. Prathap Oburai, the Director of NIA. The institute has also revamped its assessment structure from a percentage based to a CGPA based grading system.

### Research

At the research level, NIASOM has established several instrumentalities. The journal "PRAVARTAK" is a research publication running in parallel to BIMAQUEST published by the parent institution National Insurance Academy. Dnyanajyoti Research Series (DJRS) is a research series that publishes occasional papers dealing with insurance and risk management. "Utkarsh" is another student publication focusing on learning issues that students want to highlight in their way. The PhD program revolves around Management, Insurance, Risk Management, Information Technology, and Economics.
The academy conducts a nomination process to select a "C. D. Deshmukh Fellow" every year based on the excellence of past research recognized both by academia and insurance industry. Similarly for student researchers creating excellence in developing insurance laboratory project, an endowment is established by a former chairman of Life Insurance Company in early eighties known as the "A S Gupta" endowment.
In 2006, in recognition of its dedication for development of insurance laboratory, a historical Lloyd's Box was presented to the academy's director Dr K C Mishra by Marsh Brokers, which is now housed in the academy's Incubation Centre.