TERM PAPER OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

On
LIFE INSURANCE CORPORATION OF INDIA

SUBMITTED TO: Mr. Amit Kumar Lal Lecturer of mgt LIM

SUBMITTED BY: Gaurav Arora rt1801 b56 10812415

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The story of insurance is probably as old as the story of mankind. The same instinct that prompts modern businessmen today to secure themselves against loss and disaster existed in primitive men also. They too sought to avert the evil consequences of fire and flood and loss of life and were willing to make some sort of sacrifice in order to achieve security. Though the concept of insurance is largely a development of the recent past, particularly after the industrial era past few centuries yet its beginnings date back almost 6000 years. Life Insurance in its modern form came to India from England in the year 1818. Oriental Life Insurance Company started by Europeans in Calcutta was the first life insurance company on Indian Soil. All the insurance companies established during that period were brought up with the purpose of looking after the needs of European community and Indian natives were not being insured by these companies. However, later with the efforts of eminent people like Babu Muttylal Seal, the foreign life insurance companies started insuring Indian lives. But Indian lives were being treated as sub-standard lives and heavy extra premiums were being charged on them. Bombay Mutual Life Assurance Society heralded the birth of first Indian life insurance company in the year 1870, and covered Indian lives at normal rates. Starting as Indian enterprise with highly patriotic motives, insurance companies came into existence to carry the message of insurance and social security through insurance to various sectors of society. Bharat Insurance Company (1896) was also one of such companies inspired by nationalism. The Swadeshi movement of 1905-1907 gave rise to more insurance companies. The United India in Madras, National Indian and National Insurance in Calcutta and the Cooperative Assurance at Lahore were established in 1906. In 1907, Hindustan Co-operative Insurance Company took its birth in one of the rooms of the Jorasanko, house of the great poet Rabindranath Tagore, in Calcutta. The Indian Mercantile, General Assurance and Swadeshi Life (later Bombay Life) were some of the companies established during the same period. Prior to 1912 India had no legislation to regulate insurance business. In the year 1912, the Life Insurance Companies Act, and the Provident Fund Act were passed. The Life Insurance Companies Act, 1912 made it necessary that the premium rate tables and periodical valuations of companies should be certified by an actuary. But the Act discriminated between foreign and Indian companies on many accounts, putting the Indian companies at a disadvantage.

The first two decades of the twentieth century saw lot of growth in insurance business. From 44 companies with total business-in-force as Rs.22.44 crore, it rose to 176 companies with total business-in-force as Rs.298 crore in 1938. During the mushrooming of insurance companies many financially unsound concerns were also floated which failed miserably. The Insurance Act 1938 was the first legislation governing not only life insurance but also non-

life insurance to provide strict state control over insurance business. The demand for nationalization of life insurance industry was made repeatedly in the past but it gathered momentum in 1944 when a bill to amend the Life Insurance Act 1938 was introduced in the Legislative Assembly. However, it was much later on the 19th of January, 1956, that life insurance in India was nationalized. About 154 Indian insurance companies, 16 non-Indian companies and 75 provident were operating in India at the time of nationalization. Nationalization was accomplished in two stages; initially the management of the companies was taken over by means of an Ordinance, and later, the ownership too by means of a comprehensive bill. The Parliament of India passed the Life Insurance Corporation Act on the 19th of June 1956, and the Life Insurance Corporation of India was created on 1st September, 1956, with the objective of spreading life insurance much more widely and in particular to the rural areas with a view to reach all insurable persons in the country, providing them adequate financial cover at a reasonable cost. LIC had 5 zonal offices, 33 divisional offices and 212 branch offices, apart from its corporate office in the year 1956. Since life insurance contracts are long term contracts and during the currency of the policy it requires a variety of services need was felt in the later years to expand the operations and place a branch office at each district headquarter. re-organization of LIC took place and large numbers of new branch offices were opened. As a result of reorganisation servicing functions were transferred to the branches, and branches were made accounting units. It worked wonders with the performance of the corporation. It may be seen that from about 200.00 crores of New Business in 1957 the corporation crossed 1000.00 crores only in the year 1969-70, and it took another 10 years for LIC to cross 2000.00 crore mark of new business. But with re-organisation happening in the early eighties, by 1985-86 LIC had already crossed 7000.00 crore Sum Assured on new policies. Today LIC functions with 2048 fully computerized branch offices, 100 divisional offices, 7 zonal offices and the Corporate office. LICs Wide Area Network covers 100 divisional offices and connects all the branches through a Metro Area Network. LIC has tied up with some Banks and Service providers to offer on-line premium collection facility in selected cities. LICs ECS and ATM premium payment facility is an addition to customer convenience. Apart from on-line Kiosks and IVRS, Info Centres have been commissioned at Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, New Delhi, Pune and many other cities. With a vision of providing easy access to its policyholders, LIC has launched its SATELLITE SAMPARK offices. The satellite offices are smaller, leaner and closer to the customer. The digitalized records of the satellite offices will facilitate anywhere servicing and many other conveniences in the future. LIC continues to be the dominant life insurer even in the liberalized scenario of Indian insurance and is moving fast on a new growth trajectory surpassing its own past records. LIC has issued over one crore policies during the current year. It has crossed the milestone of issuing 1,01,32,955 new policies by 15th Oct, 2005, posting a healthy growth rate of 16.67% over the corresponding period of the previous year.

From then to now, LIC has crossed many milestones and has set unprecedented performance records in various aspects of life insurance business. The same motives which inspired our forefathers to bring insurance into existence in this country inspire us at LIC to take this message of protection to light the lamps of security in as many homes as possible and to help the people in providing security to their families.

ABOUT LIC
Every day we wake up to the fact that more than 220 million lives are part of our family called LIC. Humbled by the magnitude of the responsibility LIC carry and realise that the lives that are associated with it are very valuable indeed. Although this journey started five decades ago, we are still conscious of the fact that, while insurance may be a business for LIC, being part of millions of lives every day for the past 52 years has been a process called TRUST 53 Years Of Trust Thy Name Is LIC

MISSION
"Explore and enhance the quality of life of people through financial security by providing products and services of aspired attributes with competitive returns, and by rendering resources for economic development."

VISION
"A trans-nationally competitive financial conglomerate of significance to societies and Pride of India."

OBJECTIVES OF LIC

Spread Life Insurance widely and in particular to the rural areas and to the socially and economically backward classes with a view to reaching all insurable persons in the country and providing them adequate financial cover against death at a reasonable cost. Maximize mobilization of people's savings by making insurance-linked savings adequately attractive. Bear in mind, in the investment of funds, the primary obligation to its policyholders, whose money it holds in trust, without losing sight of the interest of the community as a whole; the funds to be deployed to the best advantage of the investors as well as the community as a whole, keeping in view national priorities and obligations of attractive return. Conduct business with utmost economy and with the full realization that the moneys belong to the policyholders. Act as trustees of the insured public in their individual and collective capacities. Meet the various life insurance needs of the community that would arise in the changing social and economic environment. Involve all people working in the Corporation to the best of their capability in furthering the interests of the insured public by providing efficient service with courtesy. Promote amongst all agents and employees of the Corporation a sense of participation, pride and job satisfaction through discharge of their duties with dedication towards achievement of Corporate Objective.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Members On The Board Of The Corporation Shri. T.S. Vijayan (Chairman) Shri. D.K. Mehrotra (Managing Director - LIC) Shri. Thomas Mathew T. (Managing Director - LIC) Shri. A.K. Dasgupta (Managing Director - LIC) Shri. Ashok Chawla (Finance Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India) Shri. R. Gopalan (Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India.) Shri. Yogesh Lohiya (Chairman cum Managing Director, GIC of India) Shri D.L. Rawal (Chairman & Managing Director , Dena Bank) Dr. Sooranad Rajashekhran Shri. Monis R. Kidwai Lt. General Arvind Mahajan ( Retd.)

OPERATIONS

KNOW ABOUT YOUR LIFE INSURANCE

Life insurance in India made its debut well over 100 years ago. In our country, which is one of the most populated in the world, the prominence of insurance is not as widely understood, as it ought to be. What follows is an attempt to acquaint readers with some of the concepts of life insurance, with special reference to LIC. It should, however, be clearly understood that the following content is by no means an exhaustive description of the terms and conditions of an LIC policy or its benefits or privileges. What Is Life Insurance? Life insurance is a contract that pledges payment of an amount to the person assured (or his nominee) on the happening of the event insured against. The contract is valid for payment of the insured amount during: The date of maturity, or Specified dates at periodic intervals, or Unfortunate death, if it occurs earlier.

Among other things, the contract also provides for the payment of premium periodically to the Corporation by the policyholder. Life insurance is universally acknowledged to be an institution, which eliminates 'risk', substituting certainty for uncertainty and comes to the timely aid of the family in the unfortunate event of death of the breadwinner. By and large, life insurance is civilisation's partial solution to the problems caused by death. Life insurance, in short, is concerned with two hazards that stand across the life-path of every person: 1. 2. That of dying prematurely leaving a dependent family to fend for itself. That of living till old age without visible means of support.

Life Insurance Vs. Other Savings

Contract Of Insurance: A contract of insurance is a contract of utmost good faith technically known as uberrima fides. The doctrine of disclosing all material facts is embodied in this important principle, which applies to all forms of insurance.

At the time of taking a policy, policyholder should ensure that all questions in the proposal form are correctly answered. Any misrepresentation, non-disclosure or fraud in any document leading to the acceptance of the risk would render the insurance contract null and void. Protection: Savings through life insurance guarantee full protection against risk of death of the saver. Also, in case of demise, life insurance assures payment of the entire amount assured (with bonuses wherever applicable) whereas in other savings schemes, only the amount saved (with interest) is payable.

Aid To Thrift: Life insurance encourages 'thrift'. It allows long-term savings since payments can be made effortlessly because of the 'easy instalment' facility built into the scheme. (Premium payment for insurance is either monthly, quarterly, half yearly or yearly). For example: The Salary Saving Scheme popularly known as SSS, provides a convenient method of paying premium each month by deduction from one's salary. In this case the employer directly pays the deducted premium to LIC. The Salary Saving Scheme is ideal for any institution or establishment subject to specified terms and conditions.

Liquidity: In case of insurance, it is easy to acquire loans on the sole security of any policy that has acquired loan value. Besides, a life insurance policy is also generally accepted as security, even for a commercial loan.

Tax Relief: Life Insurance is the best way to enjoy tax deductions on income tax and wealth tax. This is available for amounts paid by way of premium for life insurance subject to income tax rates in force. Assessees can also avail of provisions in the law for tax relief. In such cases the assured in effect pays a lower premium for insurance than otherwise.

Money When You Need It:

A policy that has a suitable insurance plan or a combination of different plans can be effectively used to meet certain monetary needs that may arise from time-to-time. Children's education, start-in-life or marriage provision or even periodical needs for cash over a stretch of time can be less stressful with the help of these policies. Alternatively, policy money can be made available at the time of one's retirement from service and used for any specific purpose, such as, purchase of a house or for other investments. Also, loans are granted to policyholders for house building or for purchase of flats (subject to certain conditions).

Who Can Buy A Policy? Any person who has attained majority and is eligible to enter into a valid contract can insure himself/herself and those in whom he/she has insurable interest. Policies can also be taken, subject to certain conditions, on the life of one's spouse or children. While underwriting proposals, certain factors such as the policyholders state of health, the proponent's income and other relevant factors are considered by the Corporation.

Insurance For Women Prior to nationalisation (1956), many private insurance companies would offer insurance to female lives with some extra premium or on restrictive conditions. However, after nationalisation of life insurance, the terms under which life insurance is granted to female lives have been reviewed from time-to-time. At present, women who work and earn an income are treated at par with men. In other cases, a restrictive clause is imposed, only if the age of the female is up to 30 years and if she does not have an income attracting Income Tax.

Medical And Non-Medical Schemes Life insurance is normally offered after a medical examination of the life to be assured. However, to facilitate greater spread of insurance and also to avoid inconvenience, LIC has been extending insurance cover without any medical examination, subject to certain conditions.

With Profit And Without Profit Plans An insurance policy can be 'with' or 'without' profit. In the former, bonuses disclosed, if any, after periodical valuations are allotted to the policy and are payable along with the contracted amount. In 'without' profit plan the contracted amount is paid without any addition. The premium rate charged for a 'with' profit policy is therefore higher than for a 'without' profit policy.

Keyman Insurance Keyman insurance is taken by a business firm on the life of key employee(s) to protect the firm against financial losses, which may occur due to the premature demise of the Keyman.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND LIC

LIC has been one of the pioneering organizations in India who introduced the leverage of Information Technology in servicing and in their business. Data pertaining to almost 10 crore policies is being held on computers in LIC. We have gone in for relevant and appropriate technology over the years.

1964 saw the introduction of computers in LIC. Unit Record Machines introduced in late 1950s were phased out in 1980s and replaced by Microprocessors based computers in Branch and Divisional Offices for Back Office Computerization. Standardization of Hardware and Software commenced in 1990s. Standard Computer Packages were developed and implemented for Ordinary and Salary Savings Scheme (SSS) Policies.

FRONT END OPERATIONS With a view to enhancing customer responsiveness and services , in July 1995, LIC started a drive of On Line Service to Policyholders and Agents through Computer. This on line service enabled policyholders to receive immediate policy status report , prompt acceptance of their premium and get Revival Quotation, Loan Quotation on demand. Incorporating change of address can be done on line. Quicker completion of proposals and dispatch of policy documents have become a reality. All our 2048 branches across the country have been

covered under front-end operations. Thus all our 100 divisional offices have achieved the distinction of 100% branch computerisation. New payment related Modules pertaining to both ordinary & SSS policies have been added to the Front End Package catering to Loan, Claims and Development Officers Appraisal. All these modules help to reduce time-lag and ensure accuracy.

METRO AREA NETWORK A Metropolitan Area Network, connecting 74 branches in Mumbai was commissioned in November, 1997, enabling policyholders in Mumbai to pay their Premium or get their Status Report, Surrender Value Quotation, Loan Quotation etc. from ANY Branch in the city. The System has been working successfully. More than 10,000 transactions are carried out over this Network on any given working day. Such Networks have been implemented in other cities also.

WIDE AREA NETWORK All 7 Zonal Offices and all the MAN centres are connected through a Wide Area Network (WAN). This will enable a customer to view his policy data and pay premium from any branch of any MAN city. As at November 2005, we have 91 centers in India with more than 2035 branches networked under WAN. INTERACTIVE VOICE RESPONSE SYSTEMS (IVRS) IVRS has already been made functional in 59 centers all over the country. This would enable customers to ring up LIC and receive information (e.g. next premium due, Status, Loan Amount, Maturity payment due, Accumulated Bonus etc.) about their policies on the telephone. This information could also be faxed on demand to the customer. LIC ON THE INTERNET LICs Internet site is an information bank. LIC has displayed information about LIC & its offices . Efforts are on to upgrade our web site to make it dynamic and interactive. The addresses/e-mail Ids of ur Zonal Offices, Zonal Training Centers, Management Development Center, Overseas Branches, Divisional Offices and also all Branch Offices with a view to speed up the communication process. PAYMENT OF PREMIUM AND POLICY STATUS ON INTERNET LIC has given its policyholders a unique facility to pay premiums through Internet absolutely free and also view their policy details on Internet premium payments. There are 11 service providers with whom L I C has signed the agreement to provide this service.

INFORMATION KIOSKS LIC have set up 150 Interactive Touch screen based Multimedia KIOSKS in prime locations in metros and some major cities for dissemination information to general public on our products and services. These KIOSKS are enabling to provide policy details and accept premium payments. INFO CENTRES LIC have also set up 8 call centres, manned by skilled employees to provide you with information about our Products, Policy Services, Branch addresses and other organizational information.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS

INDY's Silver Award for best Corporate Film World Brand Congress Award OUTLOOK MONEY -- NDTV PROFIT AWARD 2009 in " BEST LIFE INSURER CATEGOR NDTV PROFIT BUSSINESS LEADERSHIP, AWARDS 2009 CNBC AWAAZ CONSUMER AWARD 2009 for" Most preferred insurance company " ASIA PACIFIC HRM Congress, 2009 Award for INNOVATIVE HR PRACTICES Brand Equity Most Trusted Brand 2009 Top in Insurance Category Golden Peacock Innovative Product / Service Award - 2009 Loyalty Award - 2009 Reader's Digest Trusted Brand Award, 2009 ( Platinum category ) CNBC Awaaz Consumer Awards 2008 NDTV Profit Business Leadership Award 2008 INDY's Silver Award for Best Corporate Film NASCOM IT USER Award 2008

Business Superbrand India 2009 ASIA BRAND CONGRESS BRAND LEADERSHIP AWARD, 2008

Dr.Manmohan Singh Prime Minister of India

Shri.P.Chidambaram Union Finance Minister

In the year 1956, 245 Indian and foreign companies were nationalized and today, the three letters LIC, stands as a synonym for insurance, for services, for excellence in strengthening the economic fibre of this country. I dare to say that no other three letters taken together are more recognised to the length and breadth of India than LIC. The performance figures of LIC give an indication why LIC is dear to us, why LIC is a Jewel in our crown and why we will continue to nurture LIC and grow it into a great organization rendering service to the people of India. LICs footprints are now to be found in many other countries in the world. Wherever Indians go - and they go everywhere now, wherever Indians are welcome - and they are welcome in every part of the world, wherever Indians settle down they have found many new homes, wherever Indians excel and they excel in every walk of life, they want LIC they want LIC to protect them, to look after their savings, and provide for protection as well as their retirement.

P. Chidambaram Union Finance Minister

Excerpts from speeches at the inaugural function of LICs Golden Jubilee Celebrations. Lucknow, September 1, 2005.

SWOT ANALYSIS OF LIC

Strengths: 1) Brand Image 2) Govt Guarantee 3) Claims settlement 4) Pan India presence 5) Large product portfolio

Weakness: 1) Lethargic Staff 2) Mediocre Top Bosses 3) Large scale Corruption in Main Office 4) Ultra-Slow decision making process 5) Internal problems between Top Management and lower cadre Employees

Opportunities: 1) Pension Market 2) Health Insurance 3) Large Real Estate portfolio

Threats: 1) Internal discord 2) New players 3) Red-tapism

PORTER FIVE COMPETITIVE FORCES FOR INSURANCE INDUSTRY

Competitive Force: Michael Porter has identified five forces that determine the intrinsic long-run profit attractiveness of a market or market segment. Industry competitors Potential entrants. Substitutes. Buyers. Suppliers.

Threat of Intense Segment Rivalry: A segment like insurance sector which is very attractive because, it is in the growing stage of the life cycle, and these makes this segment attractive but on the other hand it already contains aggressive competitors such as: Bajaj Alliances ICICI Prudential Life Insurance. HDFC. Franklin Templeton. Reliance. Unit trust Of India. Etc.

The numbers of Competitors are more but the potential in the Insurances sectors that makes this Sector attractive to most of the financial companies. So, for that reason LIC have a tuff competition with other competitors in this segment and secondly LIC had an experience of more than 20 years of this segment but on the other hand the company like, ICICI PRU had good experience of this market. So for LIC there is threat mainly with the ICICI PRU. And in future this can lead to frequent price wars, advertising battles and new-product

introductions and will make it expensive to compete. But overall this segment is very attractive.

Threat of new entrants: Segments attractiveness varies with the height of its entry and exit barriers. If we look from this angle then this segment is moderate because the entry barriers are high for the foreign companies, because of the restriction imposed by the Indian government on them, such as, they can have a maximum of 26% stage in the company and secondly the companies should have certain amount of money with them as mention by the govt. and the exit barriers are low. This means that few new firms can enter into the industry and poorperforming firms can easily exit and for this reason, this segment is more attractive for the companies.

Threat of substitute Product: When we considers on the substitute products, this segment is unattractive because there are many actual and potential substitutes for the product of LIC and all the competitors have almost similar product or plans, but they mainly differ in the service point of view. Threat of Buyers growing Bargaining Power: This segment is unattractive because the buyers possess strong or growing bargaining powers such as: The buyers switching cost is low in the financial investment sectors.

The product is undifferentiated because most of the companies in the insurance sector provide almost same policies and investment plans.

Threat of Suppliers Growing Powers: In this segment, the suppliers bargaining power is more, because banks and CA are the easiest and the important channel to reach the client and for that reason they have the strong bargaining power.

MAJOR PLAYERS

Life Insurance: Bajaj Allianz ING Vysya AMP Sanmar Assurance Limited SBI Life Tata AIG Life HDFC Standard ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Birla Sunlife Aviva Life Insurance Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Max New York Life Met Life LIC

General Insurance: Royal Sundaram Tata-AIG General Reliance General IFFCO-Tokio ICICI-Lombard

Bajaj Allianz HDFC CHUBB New India Assurance Company Limited National Insurance Company Limited United India Insurance Company Limited Oriental Insurance Limited

PRODUCT OFFERED TO CUSTOMER

CHILDREN'S POLICY Komal Jeevan - Plan No. 159 Children Deferred - Plan no.41 Jeevan Kishore - Plan no.102 Jeevan Chhaya - Plan no.103 Marriage Endowment/Educational Annuity - Plan No. 90 Jeevan Anurag - Plan no.168

ENDOWMENT POLICY Endowment with Profits - Plan no.14 Limited Payment Endowment with Profits - Plan no.48 Jeevan Mitra - Plan no.88 New JanaRaksha Policy - Plan no.91 Jeevan Anand Plan no. 149 Jeevan Mitra Triple Cover - Plan no.133

GROUP INSURANCE POLICY Janashree Bima Yojana Group Insurance Scheme in lieu of EDLI Group (Term) Insurance Scheme Group Savings Linked Insurance Scheme Group Superannuation Scheme Group Mortgage Redemption Assurance Scheme

JOINT LIFE POLICY Jeevan Saathi - Plan no.89

MONEY BACK POLICY Money Back with Profit - Plan no.75 New Money Back - Plan no.93 Jeevan Surabhi 15 yrs - Plan no.106 Jeevan Surabhi 20 yrs - Plan no.107 Jeevan Surabhi 25 yrs - Plan no.108 Jeevan Bharati Plan No 160 Jeevan Samriddhi Plan No 154, 155, 156 157 Bima Bachat- Plan no.175

PENSION PLANS OR ANNUITIES New Jeevan Dhara - Plan no.148 New Jeevan Suraksha Plan no. 147 Jeevan Akshay II Plan no. 163

Jeevan Nidhi Plan no. 169 Jeevan Akshay V Plan no. 183

SPECIAL PLANS Term Assurance - Plan no.43 Mortgage Redemption - Plan no.52 Jeevan Aadhar - Plan no.114 Market Plus - Plan No 181 Jeevan Vishwas Plan No. 136 Jeevan Saral Plan No. 165 Jeevan Pramukh Plan No. 167 Bima Nivesh 2005 Plan No 171 Money Plus-Plan No 180

TERM POLICY Convertible Term Assurance - Plan no.58 New Bima Kiran Term Assurance Anmol Jeevan I Plan No- 164 Amulya Jeevan-Plan No-177

Companys Strategic Practices

MARKETING

Until the Indian insurance industry was liberalized, LIC did not have any clear marketing strategies. Since it enjoyed monopoly status, it could afford to have a very limited focus on marketing. For the average Indian, LIC became synonymous with life insurance, and over the years it built up an enviable brand image in both rural and urban areas. The company grew by leaps and bounds, with people buying its policies due to the tax concessions attached to it. On account of its position as a monopoly, LIC did not standardize its practices nor did it focused on providing better customer service to the policyholders... The Visakhapatnam division of the LIC has signed MoUs with two private broking firms for marketing its products, as provided for in the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) Act. Setting a new trend, the divisional office signed memoranda of understanding with Insol Insurance Solutions Pvt Ltd, a broking firm, and Vijay Sai Associates, corporate agents, for the purpose. Mr Surendra Behera, the divisional manager, said that LIC was aggressively marketing its products through private channels as well. Till five years ago, one had to hunt for an LIC agent to pay ones premium or buy a new policy. Today, one can get do it on the Internet or at the nearest post office or even better, one can simply leave a standing instruction with ones bank. LIC has recognized that the consumer of today has no time to go to the vendor. The vendor has to come out of his ivory tower to where the consumer is located. The reasons could be any number - increased competition being one major one. The point is that LIC cannot ignore the changing consumer attitudes and behavior. The customers in the economies in this region, particularly China and India, deserve marketing strategies that reflected native cultures and people's buying habits.

DISTRIBUTION

LIC had a large network of 8 lakh agents for distributing its products. The company had several marketing personnel designated as 'Development Officers' in each branch. These development officers, in turn, employed and trained a number of agents, and received incentives for the business generated by these agents, in addition to their regular salaries. However, this network was not very cost-effective as LIC had to pay bonuses and commissions twice - to the agents as well as the development officers - for every new policy and every subsequent renewal. Despite the efforts of the development officers, the retention of agents had become difficult.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

In order to be able to serve its customers better, LIC had an well-organized grievance redressal system. The grievance redressal system consisted of Grievance Redressal Officers, complaint cells, a claims review committee, policyholders' councils, an advisory board, a consumers' affairs committee and a citizens' charter.

Recent articles or news about company

LIC pumps Rs 61,000 cr into equity market last fiscal

25 Apr 2010, 1125 hrs IST,PTI

NEW DELHI: State-run Life Insurance Corporation pumped over Rs 61,000 crore into the capital market during 2009-10, 50 per cent more than what it invested in the previous fiscal. "We have invested Rs 61,468 crore in the equity market for the year ended March 2010 which is almost 50 per cent higher than the previous fiscal's," LIC Executive Director (investment operations) N Mohanraj told PTI. The equity exposure of LIC was over Rs 20,000 crore higher as the company had invested Rs 40,800 crore in the share market in 2008-09. During the year, the gross investment, including bonds and government securities, touched Rs 1,91,737 crore compared to about Rs 1,65,000 crore in the previous fiscal, he said. On further prodding about investment details, Mohanraj said that it was sector agnostic and spread across many companies. Besides, LIC also participated in the primary market in a big way by investing in both initial public offers and follow-on public offers by public sector companies. LIC invested about Rs 12,000 crore in the primary market during the year, he said.

The life insurance major was among the largest investors in NTPC's follow-on public offer and Rural Electrification Corporation. Asked about the cause for increasing exposure in the stock markets, Mohanraj said that the sentiment in the equity market is improved and slew of public offers are in pipeline. Moreover, the investment is also linked to premium collection. If the premium towards equity linked ULIPs goes up, the investment in the equity market goes up, he said. As on February 28, in last fiscal, LIC's market share in terms of first year premium was 65.06 per cent and in terms of policies to 70.79 per cent, as per the IRDA data. The life insurance behemoth had 61.12 per cent market share in terms of first year premium income and 70.52 per cent in terms of insurance policies in 2008-09.

TCS helps LIC automate operations across 5 GCC countries

20 April 2010

n ews

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) today announced the successful deployment of its insurance product `TCS BaNCS' at the Life Insurance Corporation (International) helping LIC to automate operations across five countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The TCS BaNCS solution integrates all operations of LIC (International) across the GCC on a single platform for traditional as well as unit-linked businesses. Besides, it gives LIC (International) increased operational control, process efficiencies, superior customer service capabilities and rapid time to market, TCS said in a release. The solution helps LIC (International) deploy common insurance processes across all countries in the GCC without compromising on local requirements such as currency, and driving all validations, calculations and processing sequences centrally. With a fully automated solution, LIC (International)'s operations are now more efficient, resulting in higher throughput, while customers can benefit from improved service levels. The solution also helps LIC (International) introduce new products to the market rapidly through creation and modification to products using the Product designer workbench component. LIC (International) is one of the largest Insurance companies in the GCC in sales volumes. With the TCS BaNCS insurance product suite becoming operational, LIC (International) is

now able to manage all of its operations in the Middle East on a single, centralised platform through efficient processes, transactions and improved customer service. "A key criterion for insurance companies in the region is to develop wide coverage alongside a range of insurance functionality, while drilling down deep into each service or product to create an end-to-end solution for superior customer service. With TCS BaNCS Insurance's comprehensive functional and technological breadth and depth, we will be able to achieve this objective without any difficulty," R Thamodharan, CEO and MD of LIC (International), said. "The TCS BaNCS solution will help LIC (International) bring innovative and new solutions to the market more rapidly while giving them a consolidated view of all processes across their operations in the GCC. We congratulate LIC (International) on this achievement, and reiterate our commitment to playing the role of a trusted, technology partner to our clients in this region," Pradipta Pandit, product head, insurance, TCS BaNCS, said. TCS Financial Solutions (TCSFS) is a strategic business unit of Tata Consultancy Services that provides business application solutions to financial institutions globally. TCSFS, with its comprehensive product portfolio called TCS BaNCS, has a global customer base of more than 240 institutions operating in over 80 countries.

LIC Cards launches emergency `card protection plan'

31 March 2010

news

LIC Cards Services Limited today announced the launch of a `Card Protection Plan' for its credit card customers, which would help them block all their lost or stolen cards on a single call to CPP's 24-hour helpline from anywhere in the world. The CPP service, launched in partnership with CPP Assistance Services Pvt Ltd, is India's first comprehensive card protection service, LIC said in a release. Card Protection Plan is unique because customers have the benefit of calling CPP's helpline from anywhere in the world and report their cards as lost. This one call will ensure CPP notifies all cards as lost, without the customer having to call individual issuers, the release said. CPP membership safeguards all of the LIC cardholder's payment cards - credit, debit and ATM cards. Members also have the facility to register non-financial cards such as store

cards, loyalty and membership cards. In addition, CCP also holds safe other valuable documents such as passport, PAN, driving licence etc for retrieval and reminder services as and when a customer may require them. Additionally, the CPP member is provided worldwide cover on fraudulent usage of their lost or stolen cards. This cover starts from 7 days before they report card loss and stretches to any period after the loss is reported to CPP. Further, if while travelling in India or abroad the member's cards go missing and CPP is notified by the customer on discovery of card loss, CPP will facilitate through its authorised dealer `Emergency Travel & Hotel Assistance,' so that the customer returns home safe. The Emergency Travel & Hotel Assistance advanced to the cardholder is repayable within 28 days. LIC cardholders have options to choose between the `Premium' and `Classic' plans. They can also protect another member of their family by opting for a joint membership on any of these plans. LIC cardholders can soon enroll themselves for CPP membership by calling a dedicated number. Announcing CPP Card Protection Cover, Hemant Bhargava, CEO and director, LIC Cards Services Limited, said: "LIC cardholders can now travel anywhere in the world with complete peace of mind by opting for CPP membership." Gagan Maini, CEO of CPP Assistance Services India, said the company is happy to extend the benefits of Card Protection Plan to the customers of LIC Cards. LIC Cards Services Ltd, based in New Delhi, is a subsidiary of LIC of India. The company has been issuing credit cards to LIC policyholders across India.

LIC board free to decide on banking licence: official news

18 March 2010 The Life Insurance Corporation of India's (LIC) board will have to take a decision on its own whether to apply for a banking licence, media reports quoted R Gopalan, secretary, department of financial services, ministry of finance, as saying. Speaking on the sidelines of a FICCI seminar on microfinance, Gopalan said, "the LIC board will have to decide that first. Let the board decide, discuss and debate whether LIC

should get into the banking business or not." Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in his Budget speech this year said the government is planning to open up the banking sector, saying that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is considering issue of banking licences to private sector players and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs). This is great news for India's prominent industrial houses, including Tatas, Birlas, Anil Ambani-led Reliance group, the Aditya Birla Group, Tata Capital, Anil Ambani-led Reliance Capital, Malvinder Singh-led Religare group, Muthoot Group, Bajaj Group and Shriram Finance as a change in regulatory environment will boost the ambitions of these entities to enter the banking sector (See: Mukherjee to ease banking licence rules). Many analysts see this as a pleasant surprise as RBI last issued licences to private banks way back in 2002, to Kotak Mahindra Bank and Rabo Bank. However, RBI is expected to frame new guidelines for companies willing to apply for a banking licence. Under the current RBI guidelines, an institution should have a minimum net worth of Rs300 crore, and no single entity or group of related entities can hold more than 10 per cent in a bank to apply for a licence. LIC is the largest insurer in India with a market share of over 60 per cent in the sector. In 2009-10, the insurance giant is expected to collect a sum as large as Rs176,000 crore as premium income. LIC also has subsidiaries operating in housing finance and mutual funds, and holds 10.53 per cent stake in SBI, the largest lender in the country, 10.35 per cent in the largest private sector lender, ICICI Bank and 7.02 per cent in HDFC Bank.

LIC raises equity holding in Tata Tea to 13.93 per cent news
21 October 2009 Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has hiked its stake in Tata Tea to 13.93 per cent from 11.55 per cent through open market transactions. LIC bought 14,73,649 shares, representing 2.38 per cent stake in Tata Tea for around Rs109.75 crore, the company said in a disclosure on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

LIC has pumped in around Rs90,000 crore into the stock markets during the first-half of the current fiscal. Of this, Rs16,000 crore has gone into equities. A major share of LIC's equity investments this year are expected to be in the banking and pharma sectors. LIC invests around 8-9 per cent of the total premium collected in the stock market every year. The insurance major could end financial year 2009-10 with investments exceeding the targeted Rs1,75,000 crore.

LIC Q1 premium income rises 20 per cent at Rs9,088 crore news

30 July 2009 Public sector insurer, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has reported an impressive 20 per cent year-on-year growth in the April-June first quarter premium income at Rs9,088.68 crore. LIC's first quarter premium income stood at Rs7,524 crore during last year. The company's strong showing pulled the overall industry growth marginally out of red at 0.95 per cent even as other insurers continued to flounder in the depressed economic conditions. With is performance, LIC has increased its market share to 62 per cent among life insurers in the first quarter of current fiscal. Private insurance firms first quarter income fell 20 per cent at Rs5,427 crore. According to a senior LIC official the insurer is focusing a lot on training. It has already provided post recruitment training to around 50,000 agents in the last three months and another three lakh will get trained by December 2009. He added that LIC is also more focused on selling traditional plans as people seem to be not disposed favourably to Unit Linked Insurance Plans (Ulips). According to analysts big players would continue to slip on growth this year as they are

going for consolidation with branches being closed and a cost cutting exercise under way. The LIC official said private firms are hampered by capital constraints. They are constrained in launching traditional plans as these require large amounts of capital to meet solvency norms. Overall, the life-insurance industry saw a slight improvement in first quarter premium income at Rs 14,456.34 crore against Rs 14,320.21 crore during the same period last year.

Nomura acquires 35 per cent stake in LIC Mutual Fund news

13 July 2009 Bringing an end to almost a month's speculation, Japan's Nomura Holdings Inc bought 35 per cent stake in India's LIC Mutual Fund Asset Management Co Ltd (LICMF AMC), a unit of the country's largest insurer, the Life Insurance Corporation of India Ltd (LIC) for about Rs308 crore ($63 million), valuing the fund house at Rs880 crore. As per the agreement between both parties signed in Mumbai on Saturday, the acquisition will be carried out by the Nomura Asset Management Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Nomura Holdings Inc. Out of the Rs308 crore proceeds, Rs80 crore will go to LICMF and the rest to the existing shareholders of the asset manager. The deal involves issue of fresh equity as well as secondary sale. On closing of the deal, LIC will hold 45 per cent stake in the LICMF AMC, Nomura would have 35 per cent and the remaining 20 per cent will be held by LIC Housing Finance. Nomura Holding's deputy president and chief operating officer Takumi Shibata said: "It is vital to have a local partner with a strong reputation here. With LIC's exceptional brand image, we will be able to apply best practices to our combined business through our extensive experience as a global asset manager.'' LICMF's average assets under management for June 2009 were Rs32,415 crore, about 4.8 per cent of the total mutual fund assets and the seventh-largest in India. Atushi Yoshikawa, Nomura Asset Management's CEO said: ''India is one of the fastest

growing markets for asset management in Asia and is key to Nomura's push to be the world-class asset-management firm.'' Tokyo-based Nomura is a leading financial services group comprising Nomura Holdings and its subsidiaries with worldwide reach, focusing on domestic retail, global markets, global investment and merchant banking and asset management. The company has presence in 30 countries including India and employs around 18,000 people. Nomura Asset Management had assets worth $192 billion as of March 2009. Under the deal, Nomura will provide the much needed expertise in equity management to LICMF. LICMF will continue to manage the assets, while the chief operating officer and chief investment officer (equity) will be from Nomura. Nomura also mentioned that LICMF would manage some of Nomura's investments in Indian markets. LIC chairman T S Vijayan said the agreement does not envisage any increase in Nomura's holding in LICMF although, if any party decides to sell its stake, the others will have the right of first refusal. Vijayan said that LICMF would also be looking at launching an offshore fund as there is enough appetite for Indian stocks among overseas investors. The valuation of LICMF's assets at Rs880 crore is around 2.7 per cent of the total assets under its management which is lower compared to 4-5 per cent for earlier similar deals, apparently due to LICMF's large portfolio of debt assets. However, LICMF seems contented as it is eyeing mainly the growth prospects in equity funds and international exposure together with its experienced partner. LIC, India's largest domestic institutional investor, has invested over Rs8,000 crore in equities during the first quarter and booked a profit of Rs2,800 crore. Earlier LIC announced that it would invest Rs50,000 crore in equity market this fiscal.

LIC to hike stake in South Indian Bank

24 June 2009

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The insurance giant is also planning to raise its stake in the Kerala-based South Indian Bank (SIB) one of the pioneer private sector banking institutions in South India with more than 530 branches across the country in which it is presently holding 1.91 per cent, in order to enhance the business

relations with the bank, LIC chairman T S Vijayan said in Kolkata yesterday Current regulations permit a maximum stake of 10 per cent by an insurance company in a bank. In March 2009, the insurance major had raised its stake in state-run Indian Overseas Bank to 9.96 per cent purchasing additional shares worth Rs57.65 crore in open-market transactions. LIC has started promoting its insurance products through SIB and has similar plans for the marketing of LIC credit card apart from collection of policy premiums. SIB has ended the tie-up it had with ICICI Prudential in favour of LIC. SIB intends to expand its presence in North India by setting up several new branches in various cities with 42 of them planned in the Delhi region alone and targets Rs36,000 crore business in 2009-10, 16 per cent up from last year. In another development, LIC has hiked its stake in Tata Coffee, producer and exporter of coffee, to 5.28 per cent from 4.84 per cent by investing Rs1.63 crore through open market transactions. LIC plans to partly divest its stake in UTI Asset Management Co. Ltd. (UTIAMC), along with other three shareholders. State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank and LIC holds 25 per cent each in UTIAMC and may sell up to 6.5 per cent each. Vijayan said: ''UTIAMC has decided to rope in a strategic partner. The deal is yet to be frozen and has not come to a critical stage. But all the four partners will take the same decision. We will be acting in unison. We will offload stake in equal proportion.'' Regarding a possible stake sale in LIC Mutual Fund, Vijayan said that LIC had no plans of offloading any stake in its mutual fund arm although earlier reports indicated Japanese financial firm Nomura's interest in LIC MF.

LIC plans to invest Rs50,000 crore in equities in 2009-10

24 June 2009

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India's largest insurer Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) today said said it would increase its investment in the equity market this fiscal. "We expect to invest nearly Rs50,000 crore ($10.27 billion) in equities this year against Rs 40,800 crore last year," LIC managing director Thomas Mathew told reporters in New Delhi. So far in this fiscal, the largest life insurer has invested about Rs8,000 crore in equities. As per exposure norms, LIC is also investing in government papers and corporate debt. According to LIC chairman T S Vijayan ''Last year, we infused Rs40,000 crore in equities. As per exposure norms, LIC also invests in government and corporate securities, and bought about Rs40,000 crore worth corporate debt last year." At a time when private insurance companies are struggling to recover from the financial turmoil, the state-owned company envisages a premium growth of 20 per cent in the current year to Rs186,000 crore from Rs155,000 crore last year. "Our total premium collection stood at Rs1,55,000 crore during the financial year 2008-09. This fiscal we are targetting premium collections of Rs1,80,000 crore," Vijayan said in Kolkata while speaking at a seminar organised by industrial chamber FICCI. LIC expects a 25-per cent growth in new premium in 2009-10 to Rs65,000 crore compared to Rs52,000 crore in 2008-09 when the new premium dropped by 10 per cent. Around Rs12,000 crore of the new premium is expected to come from group insurance products. Vijayan said, "The life insurance industry, which was doing very well till 2008, suffered a setback during the last fiscal due to slowdown in the market. And our new premium collections also came down though overall premium collections were good." But since the beginning of this fiscal, there are some signs of recovery in the market and our premium collections during the first three months of this fiscal have gone up significantly compared to the previous fiscal. The chairman said, last year the growth in first premium was hit by the economic slowdown and now, as the economy is showing signs of revival and the market is stabilising, the company is expected to perform well, adding that the business during the current financial year has been good so far with premium income rising at 25-30 per cent. Improvement in GDP has typically fueled demand for insurance in developing economies, he said. For the current fiscal year, the company plans to have an equal mix of both Unit-Linked Insurance Policies (ULIP) and traditional products.

The chairman further said that the company is going ahead with its plans to launch a domestic private equity fund on real estate, along with a partner.

STRATEGIES LIC SHOULD ADOPT

LIC planned to enter into more alliances with banks and with leading educational institutes for training. It would also increase offshore activities and set up an exclusive technology company for sourcing software. Other priorities were the setting up of special cells and single-window facilitation centers for high-end customers, rapid introduction of innovative policies, and a renewed thrust on mass and group business. The corporation also decided to offer value-added services to high-end customers, besides special services. At a later stage, it planned to have separate dedicated branches for high-end policyholders. The decision to have its own separate IT set-up was driven by the requirement of software for the sprawling network of LIC's branches and other offices. People of LIC claim that they have accepted the challenge of private players and are now focussing on every segment. New products like Jeevan Rekha and Anmol Jeevan have been launched to compete with the schemes of competitors. The earlier policies are being revised to adjust with the falling interest rates and needs of the buyers. The technology needed in the insurance sector is the high-tech computer technology. If we do not have this technology, we may purchase it outright from the international market. And if we cannot purchase, we can hire it. There is no need to liberalized the insurance sector to get the computer technology that is only needed for the insurance sector. Therefore, the country is not going to derive any benefit by the induction of foreign insurance companies so far as technology is concerned. The foreign insurance companies do not have the elaborate infrastructure to be able to go to the rural areas. They will try to corner the urban business and by doing so, they will be able to take a big slice out of the investible fund that the nationalized insurance sector has generated. Therefore, there is going to be diversion of funds. .Ninety percent of the Indian population and the Indian society is not going to be benefited by the induction of foreign companies. As the penetration of the insurance business depends upon the extent to which we can enable the people to increase their purchasing power, their income and employment. More over what we observe from the product of LIC these are seems to be flat products with some limited boundaries in there features. It lacks in riders. So it LIC should give emphasis to the riders where it will have more flexibility in the products. LIC products are time bound products where the products are close ended in dates. But it should not be close ended, it should be continued product where there will no saturation. Regular training program for agents should be there for continuous professional development in selling and understanding the product. Because life insurance is a service where product is given to the customer according to the persons suitability. So regular training can help agents to understand the psychology of the customers and their suitable condition. LIC also should also expand its business by tie up with the other banks (Bancasurance Partner). Although it has tie up with some of major banks like Bank of India but it has not

reached totally up to mark. So now LIC should creat more bancasurance partners to enhance its business. Now today Micro Insurance is a important concept to build there market in rural area. Although LIC has its name and fame but its reach is limited to the rural areas. The private players like Aviva, Tata-AIG has a good coverage over it. So LIC should enhance its market through micro insurance where 73% of Indian people are concentrated in the rural areas. There is a concept of micro insurance where LIC adopt in rural area.

Distribution channel LIC should adopt to get the market through Micro insurance Agents Formal Banks Regional Rural Banks Cooperative Banks SHGs & their Federations NGOs & MFIs Post Offices Internet & Rural Kiosks & Rural Knowledge Centers

THE MICROINSURANCE PRODUCTS LIC CAN ADOPT GPA JPA UHS PA NAGRIK SURAKSHA HUT CATTLE SHEEP & GOAT HOUSEHOLDERS

 MEDICAL FISHPONDS PLANTATION FARMERS PACKAGE RAJARAJESWARI BHAGYASREE CHILD BULLOCK CART BICYCLE OTHER RURAL INSURANCES.

SOME OTHER STRATEGIES

BREAKTHROUGH APPROACHES IN FOUR AREAS
The industry is at a turning point in growth and sophistication. Intensifying competition and the growing presence of players hungry to build a meaningful presence are changing the game. The incumbent LIC has continued to hold its leadership position in terms of market share and is competing with new aggression. The two largest life insurers after LIC account for nearly 50 per cent of the non-LIC market share, while the third largest player has more than doubled its market share from 5 per cent in 2004 to 11 per cent in 2007. While their presence is still dwarfed by LIC, the largest of the private-sector players have written 1.7 to 1.8 million policies in over 550 locations across the country. Significantly, these players are entering second- and third-tier towns, and even rural areas. Meanwhile, smaller private-sector players are hungry for a larger slice of the pie, and a slew of new players intend to enter the market. Some new entrants, from industries experiencing discontinuous growth such as telecommunications or retail, have the mindset and capabilities to scale up rapidly. These players are planning to introduce new distribution and service models that could fundamentally alter buying behaviour and change the basis of competition, for example through the shopassurance model or leveraging a vast telecommunications franchisee.

Faced with such rapidly intensifying competition, along with an evolving consumer base, we see the need for Indias life insurance players to develop bold, new approaches in several key areas: differentiated strategies for core market segments; distribution excellence; operational efficiency and capturing untapped demand in health insurance and pensions.

THREE CORE MARKET SEGMENTS REQUIRE DIFFERENTIATED STRATEGIES

Life insurance companies have an opportunity to create targeted and tailored Life insurance companies have an opportunity to create targeted and tailored areas offerings for different segments, building a different business model and even a different brand for each of the three core segments of the market, as described below. Financial advisor to the high net worth customer. To better serve high net worth individuals, life insurers could deploy a high-quality, specialised sales force, offer comprehensive financial advice and a broad product range (including third-party products) coupled with tailored products for specific sub-segments, and set up a separate unit to serve these customers. tailored product and distribution model for low-income urban groups. Life insurance players could build a non-traditional, profitable business with a separate range of simple products, minimal documentation, and low-cost, highly productive affinity-group-based distribution. Partnerships across a disaggregated value chain for the rural population. A successful model can be built for rural markets comprising a broad, bundled product suite of microinsurance, microcredit, savings, and other similar products, using partnerships and alliances for extensive consumer access and the infrastructure needed for distributed servicing.

CONCLUSION
India is among the important emerging insurance markets in the world. Life insurance will grow very rapidly over the next decades in India. The major drivers include sound economic fundamentals, a rising middle-income class, an improving regulatory framework and rising risk awareness. The fundamental regulatory changes in the insurance sector in 1999 will be critical for future growth. Despite the restriction of 26% on foreign ownership, large foreign insurers have entered the Indian market. State-owned insurance companies still have dominant market positions. But, this would probably change over the next decade. In the life sector, new private insurers are bringing in new products to the market. They also have used innovative distribution channels to reach a broader range of the population. There is huge in the largely undeveloped private pension market. The same is true for the health insurance business. The Indian general insurance segment is still heavily regulated. Three quarters of premiums are generated under the tariff system. Reinsurance in India is mainly provided by the General Insurance Corporation of India, which receives 20% compulsory cessions from other general insurers. Finally, the rural sector has potential for both life and general insurance. To realize this potential, designing suitable products is important. Insurers will need to pay special attention to the characteristics of the rural labor force, like the prevalence of irregular income streams and preference for simple products.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
WEBSITES www.licindia.com/ www.scribd.com/doc/21555292/Project-on-LIC-India http://www.bignerds.com/papers/8143/Strategic-Marketing-Lic/ http://www.mckinsey.com/locations/india/mckinseyonindia/pdf/insurance_a_summary. pdf http://www.domain-b.com/finance/insurance/lic/index.html

NEWSPAPERS: Economic times 25th April