actuaries

Growing opportunities in the insurance sector have opened up a host of avenues for actuaries in the country. An actuary, in simpler terms, is one who makes calculations connected with insurance. The traditional responsibilities of actuaries in life and general insurance business include designing and pricing of policies, monitoring the adequacy of funds to provide the promised benefits, recommending fair rate of bonus where applicable, ensuring solvency margin and taking care of other insurance risks like legal liability and loss of profit. According to official estimates, the number of actuaries is only about 200 in the country today. There are about 4,000 students who have now registered for a course in actuarial science. But it is expected that this number would be, at least, 10,000 by the year 2010 and 15,000 by 2015. Sensing the need to bring in professionalism in the field, the Union Government came up with the Actuaries Bill 2006 in August. A major recommendation included in the Bill was to set up an Institute of Actuaries of India. The institute will conduct examinations for the profession of actuaries. It will look into professional misconduct and create necessary facilities for the growth and training of the members of the profession. As a result, the Actuarial Society of India will be dissolved and its assets and liabilities transferred to the proposed institute.