GI Council appoints CEO–HI Ecosystem & Strategic Partnerships

Mumbai, Jan 06: The General Insurance Council (GI Council), the apex industry body representing non-life insurers in India, today announced the appointment of Dr. S. Prakash as Chief Executive officer (CEO)– Health Insurance Ecosystem and Strategic Partnerships, with effect from 7th January 2026.

The creation of this dedicated role reflects the industry’s collective commitment to strengthening India’s health insurance ecosystem through deeper collaboration, standardisation, and customer-centric reforms. The appointment comes at a time when health insurance continues to play a pivotal role in improving financial protection and access to quality healthcare across the country.

In his new role, Dr. Prakash will work closely with insurers, hospitals, regulators, and other stakeholders to support sector-wide initiatives aimed at improving transparency, efficiency, and trust across the health insurance value chain. His mandate includes advancing standardisation of treatment protocols and care pathways, strengthening frameworks to address fraud, waste and abuse, enabling smoother grievance resolution, through common grievance redressal mechanism and collaboration between payers and providers, and supporting the adoption of common hospital empanelment and cost benchmarks. He will also play a key role in shaping industry-wide norms for the inclusion of advancements in medical science within health insurance, ensuring that innovation in healthcare is aligned with patient outcomes, affordability, and sustainable insurance practices. The role will also focus on accelerating digitisation and interoperability to improve claims efficiency and enhance the overall customer experience.

Dr. S. Prakash, MS, FRCS (Glasgow), FAIS, is a seasoned medical professional with over three decades of experience spanning clinical practice and health insurance, including significant clinical experience in India and overseas as a medical doctor. He brings deep clinical understanding alongside 18 years of leadership experience in the health insurance sector, where he has been closely associated with large-scale health insurance programmes, including mass health schemes in South India that expanded coverage to over 12 crore citizens, strengthening access to organised healthcare at scale. His unique blend of medical expertise and industry insight enables a holistic understanding of healthcare delivery, insurance design, and ecosystem-wide reform, positioning him well to drive patient-centric, clinically appropriate, and sustainable solutions.

Commenting on the appointment, Dr. Tapan Singhel, Chairman, General Insurance Council, said:

“At the heart of health insurance is a simple promise, that when people are at their most vulnerable, the system stands by them. Strengthening this promise requires deep understanding of healthcare, empathy for patients, and collaboration across the ecosystem.

Dr. S. Prakash brings a rare combination of medical expertise and long experience in health insurance, which allows him to see the system through the eyes of patients, doctors, hospitals, and insurers alike. In this role, he will help drive greater transparency, better standardisation of care, and smoother, more predictable journeys for customers from hospital admission to claim settlement.

This role is about reducing friction, building trust, and using technology and shared platforms such as NHCX to make health insurance simpler and more dependable for people. As an industry, our aim is not just to pay claims, but to enable access to quality healthcare with dignity and confidence. This appointment is an important step towards our shared vision of Health for All, aligned with our commitment to Insurance for All by 2047.”

The General Insurance Council believes that focused leadership at an industry level will further support reforms aimed at improving efficiency, reducing disputes, and enhancing policyholder confidence, while enabling sustainable growth of the health insurance segment.