What is insurance??

Life Insurance Corporation was formed as a government regulated monopoly in September 1956 by an Act of Parliament, (LIC Act 1956) with a capital contribution of Rs. 50 million. Over the years, LIC built a strong distribution and agent network.


By 2000, LIC had 2048 branches and 500,000 agents across the country. With income from premiums totalling Rs. 6,262 crore and a Rs. 1,60,935 crore asset base for fiscal 2001, LIC was a financial powerhouse, with a presence in mutual funds and housing loans besides life insurance.

The company had insured more than 11.5 crore people in the country through its individual and group schemes. Of the 60-80 million life insurance policies outstanding, 48% were from the rural and semi urban areas. This was very impressive since no company in any other industry had been able to tap the rural market to this extent. LIC’s annual revenue growth rate was 8.8% during 1993-2000....

Reacting to media reports about LIC being adversely affected by the entry of MNCs, an LIC agent said, “The entry of the private players will not make any difference to LIC. The private players will concentrate more on the higher income groups while LIC will maintain its goodwill among the masses.” A policyholder added, “LIC has already been offering all the frills that the private players are now banking on and the only differentiating factor could be the quality of service.” Apprehensions of the MNCs ‘taking over’ the Indian insurance sector were gradually put to rest as various reports revealed that LIC would easily continue to be the market leader. A Monitor Group study predicted that LIC would continue to have 75-80% market share even in 2010. A report by consultants KPMG revealed that the threat of new players taking over the market had been overplayed and that the nationalized players would continue to hold strong market share positions. At the same time, there would be enough business for new entrants.

A look at the developments in other countries which opened up their insurance sector to global players reveals that new companies seldom displace the existing players. In China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, the foreign companies accounted for only 10% of the market share. In South Korea, the opening up of the sector saw the six biggest domestic players, who initially controlled the entire market, increase their business substantially. The foreign companies were not able to capture more than 0.4% of the domestic market.

What LIC does to retain its competitive strength will determine its success in the future. For now, LIC seems to be taking a Business Wire report very seriously. This report aptly summed up the whole issue: “Over the years, LIC has made money the easy way. Hereafter, it must sweat for it.”