SUPERBRANDS 2012

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LIC
through improved standards of service. The customer zones which the Corporation has developed are a fine example of this intent taking form. On the product development front, LIC has always had its ear to the ground. Given the prevailing stressful environment and the havoc it has played with people's well-being, the Corporation has launched the highly innovative Jeevan Arogya a policy that not only won for LIC the coveted Golden Peacock Innovative Product award but also brought in more than 200,000 policies within eight months of introduction. A new children's plan, Jeevan Ankur, has also been launched in January 2012 which is especially designed to meet the needs of a child as he grows into adulthood. Given the need for regular flow of income after retirement or earlier, LICs Jeevan Akshay VI plan, an immediate annuity product, is now available for purchase on-line, apart from existing distribution channels. To cater to the different segments, LIC also introduced two close-ended plans: Jeevan Vriddhi and Jeevan Vaibhav. complaints, the organisation has set up grievance cells at every level branch, divisional, zonal and corporate. There is a customer relations manager at the divisional level and a customer relations executive at the branch to champion the cause of aggrieved clients. Separately, there is a Claims Review Committee at every zonal office, as well as at the central office to offer an opportunity to claimants to make a representation for consideration of claims that have been rejected by the Corporation. To ensure complete transparency and fairness to the aggrieved, these committees include either a retired high court or a district court judge.

completed in two phases. In the first stage, the management of the companies was taken over in accordance with an Ordinance and, in the second stage, the ownership, too, by means of a Bill. The Life Insurance Corporation Act was passed by the Parliament of India on 19th June 1956 thus paving the way for the creation of the Life Insurance Corporation of India on 1st September 1956. The objective was to secure, at a reasonable cost, Indian lives and, in particular, the lives of people living in rural areas.

Product

The Life Insurance Corporation of India was formed by a special Act of Parliament in 1956 after the Government of India had nationalised 245 insurance companies. This nimble-footed behemoth sold more than 35 million policies in 2011/12 and ratcheted up more than C285,000 crore in income. The Corporation is a vast web of several thousand offices, over 119,000 direct employees and more than 1.20 million agents.
2011/12, 93.19% were on or before maturity while remarkably 94.34 % of non-early death claims were settled within fifteen days of intimation. The claim settlement ratio of LIC is better than that of any private life insurer. LIC understands that in this age where information is the key to decision-making, computerisation alone can make the difference. Today, LIC has one of the country's largest wide area networks linking every one of its offices to a central server. The Corporation has also simultaneously implemented an Enterprise Document Management System for digitisation of all policy records. This has created one of the world's largest corporate active data warehouses and has enabled the Corporation to use advanced online analytical/monthly income statement tools for predictive modelling and enhancing client relationship management initiatives. To bring service to the customers' doorstep, the Corporation offers a number of options for receiving information and making payments. Customer zones have been conceptualised as a one-stop shop for all phone-in and walk-in customers. An interactive voice response system is available in 64 cities providing around-theclock information. In its endeavour to provide relevant and timely information to its customers and its field force, LIC has launched an in-house developed application LICMobile the official mobile application for Android-based devices.

Market
When the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) Bill of 1999 was passed it laid the groundwork for private insurers to enter India. Many doomsday evangelists had then voiced their cynicism over the future of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). They assumed that international giants, with their deep pockets, would simply sweep away India's premier insurer. Belying their expectations the LIC continues to forge ahead relentlessly. It commands a market share of 80.90% of all new policies issued and 71.36% of the total first premium income that accrued in 2011/12. The rest is fought over by 23 other companies. The numbers that the Corporation throws up are truly mind boggling. In 2011/12 LIC sold more than 35 million policies, or 1 million every ten days possibly, the largest number to be sold by any life insurance company anywhere in the world. Its first year premium income was pegged at more than C42,400 crore (US$ 7.70 billion). In addition, LIC covered another 37.85 million people under its various group schemes earning more than C39,047 crore (US$ 7.10 billion) as group first year premium income. The

gross total income of the Corporation was almost C285,000 crore (US$ 51.80 billion), the income for the year was more than C200,000 crore (US$ 36.40 billion) and assets under the management of the Corporation were more than C1,400,000 crore (US$ 254.60 billion). LIC is an internationally recognised financial conglomerate, servicing its customers through its corporate office in Mumbai, 8 zonal offices, 113 divisional offices, 2048 branch offices, 1202 satellite offices, 73 customer zones, 25 MASH (Metropolitan Area Service Hub) centres, 20,054 premium acceptance points, 1146 Life Plus offices, more than 119,000 direct employees and 1,270,000 agents. The Corporation is also present in thirteen countries through branch offices in Fiji, Mauritius and the United Kingdom, a wholly owned subsidiary in Singapore, joint venture companies in Bahrain, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Saudi Arabia and chief agents' offices in Bahrain, Dubai, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Oman and Qatar.

LICs portfolio includes a wide array of life insurance and pension schemes to suit the differing needs of people. On offer is a vast smorgasbord of basic insurance plans, endowment assurance, money back plans, term assurance, health insurance plans, pension plans, children's plans and capital market-linked plans. Further, benefits such as the double accident benefit, critical illness riders and the term rider provide a greater variety for the customer to choose from. To provide insurance protection to those below the poverty line, LIC offers the Janashree Bima Yojana scheme. Given their economic status, half the premium is subsidised by the government's Social Security Fund (SSF) and the other half is contributed by nodal agencies or individuals themselves. Other attractive plans include Jeevan Anand, Endowment Plus, Jeevan Arogya, Jeevan Madhur, Bima Bachat, Jeevan Akshay, Komal Jeevan, Pension Plus and Jeevan Bharati, amongst several others. Jeevan Madhur was launched especially to address the insurance needs of the economically less privileged sections of society and has a premium as low as C25 (US$ 0.45) per week. LIC offers group insurance, group pension, group gratuity and social security schemes also which provide insurance and other benefits at a much lower cost than individual schemes.

Brand Values
The Life Insurance Corporation of India has been fulfilling its commitment to the nation's people through a rarely-seen degree of devotion and dedication. In 56 years since inception, it has never once wavered from the main objective that it is a trustee of policyholders' money; it has worked exceedingly hard to prove this trust. Besides being a people's organisation, LIC also displays exceptional motivation in fulfilling its corporate social responsibility. It steers its initiatives through its Golden Jubilee Foundation and through investments in infrastructure and social sectors such as generation and transmission of power, housing, water supply, sewerage, development of roads, bridges and the promotion of road transport. The Corporation, as always, remains committed to the customers and continuously strives to help in the task of nation-building.

Promotion
The reason for LICs exceptional success is that it has always adapted to changes in the economic and social scenario. When the IT revolution swept India, LIC became an integral part of it and leveraged technology. When competition came knocking on its door, LIC concentrated on developing human resources and trained them to compete effectively in the changed scenario. When other insurance companies launched a slew of new products, LIC responded by adopting a 360-degree customer-centric approach and brought out innovative, tailormade products better suited to Indian audiences. The Corporation offers a number of gateways that policy holders and potential customers can use, for receiving information and making payments. They include the internet, electronic clearing service (ECS), ATMs of selected banks, online collection of premiums through banking channels, payment via the short messaging service (SMS) and at LICs customer zones. To avail of these online facilities, policyholders are simply required to register their policies on the corporate web site, www.licindia.in, and pay their premia by clicking on the online premium payment tab. This facility is, of course, available only to those customers who have availed of the net banking option with participating banks. LIC also operates a professional grievance redressal mechanism. To deal with

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Recent Developments
As the segment leader it is incumbent upon LIC to set the standards for claims settlement, client satisfaction and new product development, amongst other benchmarks. The Corporation has continuously endeavoured to leverage technology and make its employees sensitive to customer needs. It has attempted to bring the company's offices closer to its clients by both their physical proximity to them as well as

LIC
LIC has a total life fund of more than C1,151,200 crore (US$ 209.30 billion) and its total assets are worth over C1,417,800 crore (US$ 257.80 billion) as on 31st March 2012 Only four countries in the world Indonesia, the US, India and China have populations greater than the number of customers LIC has LICs claims performance is amongst the best in the world. In the financial year 2011/12, LIC settled 1.91 million claims amounting to over C71,493.17 crore (US$ 13 billion) LICs outstanding maturity claims ratio stood at just 0.50% and outstanding death claims ratio at 1.22% as at the end of the 2011/12 financial year LIC paid a surplus dividend of C1281.23 crore (US$ 233 million) to the Government of India in 2011/12 as against C1137.60 crore (US$ 206.80 million) in 2010/11 LIC has advanced an amount of more than C27,390 crore (US$ 5 billion) to fund various infrastructure and social development projects

History
The English brought life insurance to India in 1818 through the Oriental Life Insurance Company. For many decades the service was reserved only for Europeans. However, through the efforts of people like Babu Muttylal Seal, Indians could be insured albeit at higher premium rates. The birth of Bombay Mutual Life Assurance Society in 1870 was heralded as the emergence of India on the life insurance map of the world. It covered Indian lives at normal rates. In 1956, the Government of India nationalised the life insurance business. At that time there were 154 Indian insurance companies, 16 foreign companies and 75 provident societies operating in India. Nationalisation was

Achievements
One of the areas of the insurance business where most companies falter is settlement of claims. In this critical area LIC has an outstanding record. In 2011/12 it settled more than 18.50 million claims for an aggregate amount of over C65,580 crore (US$ 11.90 billion). Of the total maturity claims settled in the financial year
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