Retd.Actuary R.Ramakrishnan is no more. Our Gen.Secy. condoles.

 

   FEDERATION OF RETIRED LIC CLASS I OFFICERS' ASSOCIATIONS

Acting President :     P.P.Dhamija R-6/104, Raj Nagar, GHAZIABAD – 201002. Tel: 0120-4107104 / 9810186067 Email Id – premdhamija38@gmail.com

General Secretary :    D Krishnan No.6/1, Sreshta Riverside Apartments, Wood Creek Road, Nandambakkam, Chennai - 600089 Tel : 9176635967 / 044 42850049. Email Id - dkrishnan1@gmail.com

 

E circular No.DK/spl                                                    19-01-2022

Friends,

 A great Actuary calls it a day ....

This special edition of DK Circular, comes with a Black mourning band, on the passing away of a thoroughbred Actuary, Sri R Ramakrishnan.

 

What a terrible blow it was to know our great R Ramakrishnan , the foremost Actuary in India, passed into the ages this morning, after suffering from Covid for days, under Life Support in Apollo Hospital! At his age of say 86 or so, he was still so active of mind. One could rarely see an intellectual of his ilk, being so simple in dealing with people. One would never get a feeling of who he was, if one were to just casually enter into a chat with him.

 

I remember, a couple of months back , he approached me seeking assistance in sending out a communication to the FM, Smt Nirmala Sitaraman, regarding one of the changes that was being envisaged for LIC in the context of the IPO plans. He wrote in such a lucid way to the Minister telling her that a changeover to 90% for Policyholders share rather than the existing 95%, would mean that LIC would need to maintain two Books – one for past/Existing policy holders whose share cannot be brought down to 90% for contractual reasons, and the other for the new Policyholders after the change, whose share out of surplus was to be brought down to 90%. He felt he had a moral duty to warn the powers of what it involved to make such a change. He had also pointed to possibilities of no Bonus allotment to the newer policyholders in the near future, on account of thin margins , thereby undermining the marketing efforts of LIC to sell  new policies, giving little benefit to either the policyholders or the Agents who sell such policies.

 

He was so clear of the rather involved Actuarial concepts, that he could reduce them to very simple expressions in very simple English, that those reading them could follow his logic without difficulty. His Articles published in the Hindu in the yesteryears bear ample testimony to this. Later he started a Blog of his own where he dished out a number of such beautiful articles taking you on a joy-ride into the labyrinth of the insurance garden.

I had known him more outside of LIC, than when he was within. When I was Senior Consultant with Reliance Life Insurance, he too was advising the company on Actuarial matters. We used to meet and have fairly long chats on how the Company profile was distinctively different from that of the LIC. He would address Senior Management Seminars in Reliance Life and those in the company were amazed at his sharp knowledge and wit even at that age of his.

He was always advising LIC Chairmen of successive generations, till some years ago, and I still recall how he helped Sri T S Vijayan, then Chairman, in somehow finding an Appointed Actuary for LIC, after Sri Agarwal, ED Actuarial, suddenly chose to leave LIC for greener Private pastures. He identified himself with the interests of the LIC as if a patriarch was doing it for his family.

I am unable to think of any one from this hallowed Organisation, who carried LIC within, more than he did. Truly a big loss for all of us in the LIC fraternity, and certainly the most remarkable of Actuaries India has seen to date.  My most sincere condolences to Madam RR on this huge loss, of a giant of a man, in rather puny form.

 

D.Krishnan