With the health and pension sectors opening up, experts say, the insurance industry would require at least 100-150 actuaries. Currently, the country has just 50 certified actuaries and only two qualify as actuaries every year. The demand-supply mismatch would hence stay for a while.

Dr R Kannan, President, Actuarial Society of India (ASI), said that the country needs at least 100-150 actuaries. " KPOs (Knowledge Processing Outsourcing), reinsurers and consulting firms are also hiring actuarial students," he said.

The implementation of the Base II norms would also mean that actuaries would be required for valuations of contingent liabilities and operational risk, he added.

Gopalakrishnan, Secretary-General, ASI, said that the starting level salary for actuaries is around Rs 15-20 lakh per annum, double the figure prevailing five years ago.

Members registered at ASI, which conducts the exams for actuaries, have increased from 675 in March 1999 to 5,500 in March 2006. However, in the past two years only two actuaries qualified to become fellow members. While there are 206 fellow members, only 132 are active since the rest are past their retirement age. Of the 132 members, only 50 are in India.

Dr Kannan said that the past three years has seen a tremendous leap in the number of students registered for the course. Since it takes an average of five to seven years to complete the course, it would take around three years for the number of graduating actuaries to increase to 10-20 per year.

To qualify as an actuary, a student has to pass 16 exams, which are held twice a year and attend a Fellowship Seminar to finish the course. Dr Kannan said that dropouts increase during the final phase of the course.

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