Life Insurance Corporation of India
An Act of Parliament, Life Insurance Corporation of India Act, 1956, established Life Insurance
Corporation of India (LIC).
It took over 244 private life insurance business companies then existing. It is a wholly
government owned organization with an initial capital of Rs. 5 Crores contributed by the GOI.
Its mission is to ensure and enhance the quality of life of people through financial security by
providing Life Insurance products and services of high quality, and by providing resources for
economic development. LIC is the largest life insurer in the country. For the year 2002-2003, the
Corporation has widened its reach by providing insurance cover under 2,45,29,946 policies with a
Sum Assured of Rs. 1,79,683 crore and Premium Income of Rs. 9,688.87 crore, registering the
annualized growth of 10.75% on policies, 20.00% on Sum Assured and 24.41% on Premium Income over
the period of last two years. As regards the settlement of claims LIC has touched the lowest
outstanding claim ration at 0.23% during 2002-03 which matches with the performance of any such
insurance company in the world. For the same period, the growth in the number of Agents from 7.92
lakh to over 9.60 lakh coupled with appointment of over 110 Corporate Agencies has contributed to
the growth in the number of policies. Its main asset is its staff strength of 1.24 lakh employees
and 2,048 branches and over 9.60 lakh agents coupled with the appointment of 110 Corporate
Agencies.
LIC has been actively involving itself in the promotion of new development financing institutions
in collaboration with other institutions. It provides resource support to other institutions by
subscribing to their initial and subsequent offers of shares and debentures. It has subscribed to
shares and bonds of IDBI, IFCI, ICICI, IRBI, SIDBI, EXIM BANK, NHB, REC, etc.