Speaking about your area of interest as insurance while pursuing law the examination of IRDA (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority) for the post of Junior Officer is the perfect choice for you because, in the process of this examination, the notification for recruiting is usually released around a month before the date of exam by IRDA for the post of Junior Officer for any given year. Insurance sector, like any other sector, is governed by laws and regulations and get to deal with various legal aspects on day to day basis that is where the help of a legal officer is necessary. A legal officer fights the day today legal battles that are faced by the Insurance sector.

This examination is generally conducted for various sectors at once; one among them is the post of Junior Officer in the legal department. The vacancies declared are spread over four sectors namely Legal Field, Accounting Field, Actuarial Field and General Field.

We will go through this entire process of selection, the pattern of examination, the syllabus for the post of Junior Officer of IRDA for a greater understanding, which will help an applicant in clearing this exam.

Salary and Allowances

An IRDA Junior Officer receives a basic pay of Rs.17,100 per month at various scales and the allowances include Dearness Allowances, HRA (House Rent Allowances), CCA (City Compensatory Allowances), GA (Grade Allowances). Thus presently, initially a month’s gross emolument for Junior Officers post is approx Rs. 74,351. Further certain posts with professional qualifications get qualification allowances.

Moreover, Reimbursement of expenses are also allowed for telephone expense, briefcases,  medical expenses and so on, and also the Leave Travel Concession are also allowed once in 2 years including dependent members of the family along with other allowances.

The Probation Period

It is one year probation period in this case, once the candidate has been selected as Junior Officer, and this can be extended and hence, in any case, the probation period cannot exceed 2 years from the joining date.

The Eligibility and Qualification Required

• Age An applicant must be of Min of 21 years of age to max of 35 years of age and
• Educational qualifications requirement is a Bachelors Degree with 1st class (min 60 percent marks or equivalent grade and most importantly the LL.B degree also requiring 60 percent marks or an equivalent grade in Five year Course (Integrated).

How to apply

The process is simple just visit the below mentioned official site of IRDA and follow the instructions carefully

Visit www.irda.gov.in for applying online

The Selection Process and the Syllabus for each Phase

The process of selection for this exam is conducted in 3 phases, which is as follows

The First Phase Objective Online Exam

The First Phase is Preliminary Examination consisting of Objective Type questions which are conducted online. This provision of online examination makes the process easier and encourages a candidate to apply for this exam. The time given for this examination is 100 minutes which is 1 hour and 40 minutes. Once the responses for all the questions are given on the computer or if the time is up the examination session ends automatically and responses given until that time, are recorded and submitted automatically.

This phase is a qualifying examination and candidate clearing this phase qualifies for the next phase. By this method, they prepare a separate list of all the candidates and shortlist them for all the specialization including the legal field for the next phase. In no case marks of the first phase are counted for any other phases or for final selection, because this phase just qualifies a candidate for next phase

The Syllabus for First Phase Examination

• Questions on English: English as a language has been added to the syllabus of the first stage, the kind of questions asked in this section include topics such as Rearrangement of sentences, Improvement in sentences, reading comprehension, spotting of errors and so on
• Questions on Reasoning: The various kind of questions asked in this section are based on syllogism, input-output, puzzles (Linear seating arrangement, seating arrangements, floor based), data sufficiency, inequality, data based questions or miscellaneous questions and so on
• Questions on Aptitude: The questions asked in this section include Number Series, Data Sufficiency Interpretation of Data, Quadratic Equations, and other Miscellaneous Questions. The other miscellaneous questions are based on topics such as age, area, simple and compound interest, questions from profit and loss, boat and stream, average, time and work and so on.
• Questions on General Awareness: Various kind of questions are asked in this section which includes topics like primarily Insurance, Banking, Economy and also includes Current Affairs covering areas such as national and international news, sports and related news, recent appointments, important awards or honours, about any new scheme launched, latest developments in science and technology.

Important Note: It is important to note that each objective needs to be qualified separately by each candidate and its aggregate must be as the cut-off for that year as per the decision of IRDA. Further, these separate cut-offs required be applicable for every specialization and also for general posts. Finally, negative marking exists in this exam, which is to the tune of 14th marks for each wrong answer recorded by the candidate at an on-line exam.

The Second Phase Descriptive Online Exam

The second phase of this examination is very crucial and plays very important role, hence it is lengthy and requires a lot of efforts. Moreover, its syllabus is very lengthy. This is a descriptive exam which is conducted online and consists of 3 papers. Paper I, Paper II and Paper II are three different papers with different syllabus and subjects in it.

The Syllabus for Second Phase Examination

• PAPER I (Second Phase) English

This is the First paper of the Second Phase which is English and has following topics covered in it namely-

1. Essay Writing
2. Precis Writing
3. Reading Comprehension & Business or Office Correspondence.

• PAPER II (Second Phase) It is about Economical, Social Issues that impact Insurance-
  • The impacts of age structure on an economy, the economic growth, various business cycles and insurance penetrations, macroeconomic factors which include pandemic and catastrophe which have impacts on insurance sector like various insurers or insurance market, applications of the theory of utility to insurance premium settings.
  • Requirements of an Economical Capital and risk-based capital, Insurance sectors contribution to a sustainable and development of an economy responsibly, risks transfer arrangement economic impact which includes reinsurance, investment of insurance in an infrastructural sector.
  • India’s Social Structure, rural and social sector Insurance and Insurer’s Obligation therein, RSBY- schemes of health insurance for BPL (below poverty line) family, law of social security and implementations thereof, Experience of India’s Micro-Insurance
  • Financial Market, concentrations, and systematic risks, Integration of Financial Institutions and Financial Services and risk that arises from interconnectedness and so on.
  • Reform in Insurance sector because of an economical reform in India, change in Regulation and Law of Insurance and FSLRC, India’s De-tariff IRDAI’s Functions, Actuarie’s Role, the experience of Indian motor business, Regulation of Insurance- regulation of the conduct of market and finance.
• PAPER III (Second Phase) Insurance and Management-
• PART-1

This part of Paper III of the second phase includes following topics-

1. Risk pool and diversification, interest in Insurance and indemnity applicable, uncertainty & Risk
2. Product and line of Insurance Session of the Obligators and Risks retentions within countries, insurance and liability risk, Requirement of solvency and valuations, Credit guarantees of Exports and Agriculture, Re-insurance, India’s General Insurance Corporation, Insurance of Life and annuity and Insurance of Health, India’s line of specialists insurance.
3. Insurance principles and Indian Insurance History.
4. Various type of evolution and bancassurance (Selling of Insurance by banks) in India, Intermediation and its role in the mobilisation of savings, Insurance ‘s Legal Foundation, basic of Insurance of health or groups or pension and so on.
5. Insurer’s various functions such as claim, underwritings, pricing of a product, distributions, Design of product, Investment and Reinsurance.

• PART 2

This part of Paper III of the second phase has a wide focus on the topic Management and relevant aspects as mentioned below

1. The scope and nature of management
2. The Leadership which includes topics like a leader’s task, style of leadership, theories of leadership, contrast comparison between an effective leader and a successful leader.
3. Information Technologies and its role.
4. Development of Human Resource which consists of the Developmental and Training aspects, Planning of Career, HRD (Human Resource Development) Goals, and the HRD Concept.
5. CG (Corporate Governance) which includes topics like Corporate Governance and the very Mechanism, the Corporate Governance and Factors that affect the concept.
6. Appraisals of Performance which consists of the welfare of employees, the counselling of performances and feedbacks, rewards and Development Potential, and appraisals
7. Motivations which includes topics like Motivations Theories, Morales concept, the Morale, morale and the factors which determine it, Morales Building and the role of incentives in that process, Incentive, and the Motivating Managers
8. Communications which include topics like the Communications Process and the steps in it, the Various Channels of Communications, Non-verbal Communication and Verbal Communications, Lateral communications Upward Communications and Downward Communications, Written Communications and Oral Communications, and the Communications Barriers.
9. Processes of Management which include manager’s role in an organization, laying of the plan, to staff, to direct and the way it’s controlled, and the way it’s organized.

A Small Note Level of questions under Paper I and Paper II would be of foundational character and secondly, you must also note that-

1. There will be the issue of different Admission Letter for different sessions, first would be for the session in the morning which is an examination of three hours subsequently second would be used for the session of an afternoon which an examination of one and a half hour Descriptive exam under Phase II.
2. Candidate needs to appear in every paper of those papers of examination of Phase II, which would be in 2 sessions.

The Third Phase Interview

All the shortlisted candidates clearing Phase 1 and 2 qualify for this round and are required to face a personal interview. This is done based on the aggregated marks merit seen in the candidate at earlier stages and the final decision rests with the department.  The scored or second phase and interview are combined together to reach a final decision, the proportion weightage of the exams is usually 8515 for Online Descriptive Exam and Personal Interview respectively.

Thus this is the sole opportunity provided by IRDA for the law graduates aspiring to create their future with IRDA into insurance sector, even those who have opted insurance as their subject and find interest in insurance. It is highly advisable to seek this kind of job with good pay and perks, which has its own advantage over practicing into the courts of law which is harsh and tedious with very low pay, or a job at corporate office which requires a lot of hard work and people-pleasing business, or any other job like teaching which gets hectic with the administration work of the university which is unavoidable.

For further queries and related information, you can approach the Professional Experts at CareerGuide. Hope this will help you!