new delhimumbai it was close to midnight on friday when j hari narayan the chief of indias insurance watchdog the insurance regulatory development authority or irda received a call from rashtrapathi bhavan in new delhi the official on the line from the presidents office told him that president prathiba patel had signed off on an ordinance vesting full rights to the insurance regulator relating to oversight of unit linked insurance plans or ulips which has been at the centre of an interregulatory spat the development came as hardly a surprise to the seasoned former civil servant who had been privy to the decision taken at the highest level of the countrys establishment over a fortnight ago after having failed to resolve the turf war over regulation of the investment cum insurance product ulips over the last couple of months the government got in touch with irda a few weeks ago for the government the public spat between the two regulators was not the only embarrassment the compromise settlement that it had brokered between irda and sebi well over a month ago had collapsed the government wanted the two regulators to move a joint petition before the court but apparently sebi refused to budge and instead opted to approach the supreme court to resolve the dispute over regulation of ulips when sebi was busy with this litigation before the supreme court irda did a lot of homework we were flooded with queries from investors and insurance companies over the fate of ulips foreign promoters of insurance companies wanted more clarity as well said a senior officialthe irda boss known to be a master negotiator conveyed his concerns to prime minister manmohan singh the issue needs to be resolved else there would be confusion in the market he is believed to have told the pm before moving on to discuss riperian disputes this was a master strokehari narayan was secretary of water resources in new delhi before moving back to his home state of andhra pradesh to work as chief secretary there subsequently he had an informal discussion with his previous boss and former finance minister p chidambaram while the insurance regulator shuttled between new delhi and hyderabad his team readied new rules for ulips a little after this or a few weeks ago a senior government official told hari narayan to work on a draft ordinance which would settle the issue of oversight of ulips decisively in favour of the irda hari narayan and his team worked on the initial draft and proposed changes three laws the sebi act the irda act and the securities contract regulation act to cover ulips under the life insurance business irda kept the capital markets watchdog sebi which had triggered off the turf war by banning 14 insurers from selling ulips out of the loop this hush hush development was timed to a nicety for precisely at the same time sebi chairman cb bhave was out of the country on