A doyen bids adieu

Yesterday, the nonagenarian Arun Chandra Mukherji, a doyen of the Indian insurance industry and the former chairman of New India Assurance Company we bid adieu to all of us. He is one person I know who was involved in defining the blueprint of the Indian insurance sector at the time of the nationalization of the insurance business and during its opening up to competition twenty-eight years later.

Even though he had retired much before I had joined the Indian insurance industry, I nevertheless had the rare privilege and good fortune of working closely with this living encyclopedia twice:

- in 1996-97 when the Ministry of Finance appointed him to chair a committee to look into the solvency ratios and reserving requirements for insurers to implement the recommendations of the Malhotra Committee. 

- in 2003, when he chaired the expert committee set up by the Insurance Regulatory And Development Authority to examine the remuneration system for insurance brokers and agents in the general insurance business, and I supported the Secretariat.

He was truly exceptional. I happened to learn many nuances, and notably, key pivots, by just observing how he conducted meetings to find practical answers to different pain points.

An anecdote that I vividly recall is a post-lunch consultation meeting with insurance industry representatives. After a round of introductions, he remarked that since he is old, listening is also harder. The person on the opposite side thought that he is hard of hearing and started speaking loudly and made his submission.

Later, during the break, he explained that listening is hard not because of hearing-related problems but because we're often consumed with ourselves. When you approach a conversation thinking only of your own agenda, your goal is to maneuver and manipulate the conversation and come out better than the other person. It's therefore important to be open to new information that you're not looking for but need to hear. He further underlined that although being a good listener is good, the intent has to be curiosity, not generosity.

We are all self-focused, but leaders who make a difference are the ones who know the purpose is bigger than themselves. That's when they're in a strong listening mode. He was a man who pushed the limits — in his intellectual life, to be sure, but also in his professional life. What a triumph his life has been. 

Arun Chandra Mukherji was cherished and loved by all of us. He will always occupy a prominent place in the annals of the history of the Indian insurance industry.