Gurucharanam Saranam                               

                                                  i Love LIC

Life Insurance Corporation of India

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) (Hindi: भारतीय जीवन बीमा निगम) is the largest
state-owned insurance group in India, and also the country's largest investor. It is
fully owned by the Government of India. It also funds close to 24.6% of the Indian
Government's expenses. It has assets estimated of 13.25 trillion (US$264.34
billion).It was founded in 1956 with the merger of 243 insurance companies and
provident societies.
Headquartered in Mumbai, financial and commercial capital of India,the Life Insurance
Corporation of India currently has 8 zonal Offices and 113 divisional offices located
in different parts of India, around 3500 servicing offices including 2048 branches,
54 Customer Zones, 25 Metro Area Service Hubs and a number of Satellite Offices
located in different cities and towns of India and has a network of 13,37,064
individual agents, 242 Corporate Agents, 79 Referral Agents, 98 Brokers and 42 Banks
(as on 31.3.2011) for soliciting life insurance business from the public.
The slogan of LIC is "Yogakshemam Vahamyaham" - Your welfare is our responsibility.

History

The Oriental Life Insurance Company, the first corporate entity in India offering
life insurance coverage, was established in Calcutta in 1818 by Bipin Behari Dasgupta
and others. Europeans in India were its primary target market, and it charged Indians
heftier premiums. The Bombay Mutual Life Assurance Society, formed in 1870, was the
first native insurance provider. Other insurance companies established in the pre-
independence era included

Bharat Insurance Company (1896)
United India (1906)
National Indian (1906)
National Insurance (1906)
Co-operative Assurance (1906)
Hindustan Co-operatives (1907)
Indian Mercantile
General Assurance
Swadeshi Life (later Bombay Life)

The first 150 years were marked mostly by turbulent economic conditions. It
witnessed, India's First War of Independence, adverse effects of the World War I and
World War II on the economy of India, and in between them the period of world wide
economic crises triggered by the Great depression. The first half of the 20th century
also saw a heightened struggle for India's independence. The aggregate effect of
these events led to a high rate of bankruptcies and liquidation of life insurance
companies in India. This had adversely affected the faith of the general public in
the utility of obtaining life cover.


Nationalization

In 1955, parliamentarian Amol Barate raised the matter of insurance fraud by owners
of private insurance companies. In the ensuing investigations, one of India's
wealthiest businessmen, Ram Kishan Dalmia, owner of the Times of India newspaper, was
sent to prison for two years. Eventually, the Parliament of India passed the Life
Insurance of India Act on 1956-06-19, and the Life Insurance Corporation of India was
created on 1956-09-01, by consolidating the life insurance business of 245 private
life insurers and other entities offering life insurance services. Nationalization of
the life insurance business in India was a result of the Industrial Policy Resolution
of 1956, which had created a policy framework for extending state control over at
least seventeen sectors of the economy, including the life insurance.



Current status



Over its existence of around 50 years, Life Insurance Corporation of India, which
commanded a monopoly of soliciting and selling life insurance in India, created huge
surpluses, and contributed around 7 % of India's GDP in 2006.[citation needed]
The Corporation, which started its business with around 300 offices, 5.7 million
policies and a corpus of INR 459 million (US$ 92 million as per the 1959 exchange
rate of roughly Rs. 5 for a US $ , has grown to 25000 servicing around 350 million
policies and a corpus of over 8 trillion (US$159.6 billion)



Awards and recognition

The Economic Times Brand Equity Survey 2010 rated LIC as the No. 4 Service Brand of
the Country. Though in the year 2010 is ranked at 4, the organization is consistently
among the top rated service company of the India. From the year 2006, LIC is
continuously winning the Readers' Digest Trusted brand award[8].
According to The Brand Trust Report[9] 2011, LIC is the 8th most trusted brand of
India.



LIC Golden Jubilee Foundation was established in 2006 as a charity organization. This
entity has the aim of promoting education, alleviation of poverty, and providing
better living conditions for the under privileged. Out of all the activities
conducted by the organization, Golden Jubilee Scholarship awards is the best known.
Each year, this award is given to the meritorious students in standard XII of school
education or equivalent, who wish to continue their studies and have a parental
income less than 60,000 Rupees



Members On The Board Of The Corporation

Shri D.K. Mehrotra, (Current-in-Charge CHAIRMAN, LIC )

Shri T. S. Vijayan, (Managing Director, LIC )

Shri Thomas Mathew T. (Managing Director, LIC )

Shri Sushobhan Sarker (Managing Director, LIC )

Shri R. Gopalan, (Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs,
Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India.)

Shri D.K. Mittal, (Secretary, Department of Financial Services,
Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India.)

Shri A.K. Roy, (Officiating Chairman cum Managing Director, GIC.)

Shri M.V. Tanksale, (Chairman & Managing Director, Central Bank of India )

Lt. General Arvind Mahajan (Retd.)

Shri Anup Prakash Garg

Shri Sanjay Jain

Shri Ashok Singh

Shri K.S. Sampath

Shri Amardeep Singh Cheema






Type State-owned
Industry Financial services
Founded 1 September 1956
Headquarters Mumbai, India
Key people D. K. Mehrotra, (Chairman)
Products Life and health insurance, investment management, mutual fund
Total assets 13.25 trillion (US$264.34 billion) (2010)
Owner(s) Government of India
Employees 115,966 (2010)
Subsidiaries LIC Housing Finance
LIC Cards Services
LIC Nomura Mutual Fund


Website: www.licindia.in