About LIC of india

The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) (Hindi: भारतीय जीवन बीमा निगम) is the largest privately held state-owned life insurance company 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$251.75 billion).^[1] It was founded in 1956 with the merger of 243 insurance companies and provident societies.^[2]

Headquartered in Mumbai, financial and commercial capital of India,^[3] 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

LIC Zonal Office, at Connaught Place, New Delhi, designed by Charles Correa, 1986.

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.

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 $ ^[4], has grown to 25000 servicing around 350 million policies and a corpus of over 8 trillion (US$152 billion). ^[5]

Awards and recognition

The Economic Times Brand Equity Survey 2010 rated LIC as the No. 4 Service Brand of the Country^[6]. Though in the year 2010 is ranked at 4, the organization is consistently among the top rated service company of the India^[7]. 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.

Golden Jubilee Foundation

LIC Golden Jubilee Foundation is started in 2006 as a charity organization. This entity have the aim of promoting education, alleviation of poverty, and better living conditions for the under privileged. Out of all the activities conducted by the organization, Golden Jubilee Scholarship awards is the most famous. Each year, this award is given to the meritorious students in of class XII equivalent who want to continue the studies and whose parental income is less than 60,000 Rupees.^[10]

References

External links

• Life Insurance Corporation of India - Official LIC Website