He was speaking as the chief guest at the inauguration of a post-graduate diploma course in risk and insurance management at the Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT). ``Consumer is King,'' he repeated often, asking why the consumer should be deprived of the freedom of choice in the insurance market, if he could be trusted to exercise his sovereignty in other industrial sectors. Criticising dual powers of ownership and regulation that rest with the Government in insurance today, he compared it to a situation where the judge and accused were one and the same. Citing the example of China which has opened up her insurance sector to private companies, Rangachary said that in India State ownership and regulation had resulted in total subordination of the customer, who ``should be treated as the ultimate arbitrator.''

``Competition will increase efficiency and lower the rates of premium,'' he said, adding that the present market penetration did not compare favourably with most countries and that the contribution of insurance premiums to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was very low.

"A decision on opening up the economy is now left to the political acumen of the next government", he said. ``We have re-organised the markets, and initiated banking reforms, but the insurance sector is largely unattended, probably because it has been considered less urgent.'' Rangachary announced that a draft regulation was being prepared regarding advertisements of insurance policies, and ``we will certainly look into product pricing, for that will balance the scales between the customer and insurer.'' However, Rangachary did acknowledge the contribution of the nationalised insurance sector today, saying that the geographical area it covered could never be matched by multinationals.