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Life Insurance Corporation of India

Yogakshemam Vahamyaham
LIC New Delhi
Company type	Public
Traded as	BSE: 543526 NSE: LICI
Industry	Financial services
Founded	1 September 1956 (68 years ago) (1956-09-01)
Headquarters	Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Key people	Siddharth Mohanty (Chairperson) R. Doraiswamy (Managing Director) M. Jagannath (Managing Director) Tablesh Pandey (Managing Director)
Products	Life insurance Term life insurance Unit-linked insurance plan Endowment policy Money-back policy Whole life insurance Retirement plans Health insurance Investment management Asset management Risk management Mutual funds Exchange-traded funds Index funds Fund of funds
Revenue	₹856,950 crore (US$100 billion) (2024)
Operating income	₹41,057 crore (US$4.9 billion) (2024)
Net income	₹40,916 crore (US$4.9 billion) (2024)
Total assets	₹5,719,121 crore (US$690 billion) (2024)
Total equity	₹82,890 crore (US$9.9 billion) (2024)
Owner	Government of India (96.5%)
Number of employees	98,661 (2024)
Subsidiaries	LIC Pension Fund Ltd. LIC Mutual Fund LIC Cards Services Ltd. LIC Housing Finance
Website	www.licindia.in
Footnotes / references Financials as of 31 March 2024.

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is an Indian multinational public sector life insurance company headquartered in Mumbai. It is India's largest insurance company as well as the largest institutional investor with total assets under management worth ₹52.52 trillion (US$630 billion) as of March 2024. It is under the ownership of Government of India and administrative control of the Ministry of Finance.

The Life Insurance Corporation of India was established on 1 September 1956, when the Parliament of India passed the Life Insurance of India Act, nationalising the insurance industry in India. Over 245 insurance companies and provident societies were merged.

LIC reported 290 million policyholders as of 2019, a total life fund of ₹28.3 trillion, and a total value of sold policies in the year 2018–19 of ₹21.4 million. The company also reported having settled 26 million claims in 2018–19. It ranked 98th on the 2022 Fortune Global 500 list with a revenue of ₹775,283 crore (equivalent to ₹8.2 trillion or US$98 billion in 2023) and a profit of ₹4,415 crore (equivalent to ₹47 billion or US$560 million in 2023).

History

Founding organisations

The Oriental Life Insurance Company, the first company in India to offer life insurance coverage, was established in Kolkata in 1818 by Bipin Das Gupta. Its primary target market was India.

Surendranath Tagore had founded Hindustan Insurance Society around the same time, which later became the Life Insurance Corporation.

The Bombay Mutual Life Assurance Society was formed in 1870, almost half a century later. It was the first native insurance provider of Western India. Other insurance companies established in the pre-independence era include:

• Postal Life Insurance (PLI) was introduced on 1 February 1884
• Bharat Insurance Company (1896)
• United India (1906)
• National Indian (1906)
• National Insurance (1906)
• Co-operative Assurance (1906)
• Hindustan Co-operatives (1907)
• The New India Assurance Co Ltd (1919)
• Indian Mercantile
• General Assurance
• Swadeshi Life (later Bombay Life)
• Sahyadri Insurance (Merged into LIC, 1986)

These companies were established when India was marked mostly by turbulent economic and political conditions including the Indian rebellion of 1857, World War I and World War II. The effect of these events led to a high liquidation rate of life insurance companies in India and adversely affected the faith of the general public in the value of obtaining life insurance.

Nationalization in 1956

In 1956, parliamentarian Feroze Gandhi raised the matter of insurance fraud via owners of private insurance agencies. In the ensuing investigations, one of India's wealthiest businessmen, Times of India owner Seth Ramkrishna Dalmia, was sent to prison for two years.

Initial public offering

This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: IPO has happened. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (February 2024)

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a proposal for an initial public offering (IPO) for the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) in the 2021 Union budget of India. The IPO was expected to occur in 2022, and the Government of India planned to remain the majority shareholder post-listing, with 10% of shares proposed to be allotted to existing LIC policyholders. In 2021, the Indian government also proposed to enhance LIC's authorized capital to ₹250 billion (US$3.1 billion) to facilitate its public listing.

The LIC IPO opened to the public on 4 May 2022, and concluded on 9 May 2022. The Government of India aimed to raise ₹21,000 crore through the IPO, which was significantly lower than the initially expected ₹65,000 to ₹70,000 crore by diluting a 5% equity stake. Instead, the IPO offered a 3.5% stake, valuing the company at approximately ₹6 lakh crore.

Since the IPO, LIC's market value has seen substantial growth. As of 2024, LIC's shares have reached record highs, with the company's market value increasing by $30 billion over two years.

Security Vulnerability Incidents

In October 2024, a security vulnerability was discovered in the "esales" portal of LIC. The vulnerability, identified by a prospect customer, was that by modifying the proposal URL in the browser, one could access insurance form proposals of other customers without any authentication. In violation of the prevalent OWASP Top-Ten and CERT-In guidelines , the document IDs were sequentially numbered, allowing enumeration by incrementing the number in the URL with no OTP or password verification.

The exposed data included mobile number, email address, family details, date of birth, residential address, PAN card, Aadhaar or other identity documents, Bank account information, Income Tax Returns, medical history etc. The issue was reported to LIC via multiple channels and after a CPGRAMS complaint it was fixed in seven days using UUID V4 instead of the numerical document ID.

Four more vulnerabilities were found by the same user with a similar severity in December 2024. The root cause was found to be encrypting the same sequential document and proposal IDs and exposing the decryption key in the front-end JavaScript code. Highlighting the lack of proper authorization, the JSON Web Token claims were not validated properly and a long-lived dummy JWT was allowed to access all documents. With the help of CERT-In, the vulnerabilities were resolved in 2-3 weeks.

Structure

The Central Office of LIC is based out of Mumbai. There are a total of 8 zonal offices, located in Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kanpur, Kolkata, Bhopal and Patna.

Liberalisation post 2000s

In August 2000, the Indian Government embarked on a program to liberalise the insurance sector and opened it up to the private sector. The LIC benefited from this process and in 2013 reported that the first year premium compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was 24.53% while total life premium CAGR was 19.28%, matching the growth of the life insurance industry and outperforming general economic growth.

Golden Jubilee Foundation

The LIC Golden Jubilee Foundation was established in 2006 as a charity organization. The entity has the aim of promoting education, alleviating poverty, and providing better living conditions for the underprivileged. The Golden Jubilee Scholarship award is one of the best known parts of the foundation. Each year, this award is given to the meritorious students in the 12th standard who wish to continue their studies, and have a parental income less than ₹200,000 (US$2,400).

Bima Sakhi Yojana

The "LIC's Bima Sakhi Yojana" scheme is a significant program introduced by the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) under the guidance of the Government of India. The scheme was officially inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 9, 2024, in Panipat, Haryana. The program aims to empower women by providing them with a platform to act as insurance facilitators while promoting financial inclusion in underserved and rural areas.

Holdings

The LIC invests in sectors such as banks, cement, chemicals and fertilizers, electricity and transmission, electrical and electronics, engineering, construction and infrastructure, fast-moving consumer goods, finance and investments, healthcare, hotels, information technology, metals and mining, motor vehicles, and ancillaries, oil and natural resources, retail, textiles, transportation, and logistics.

See also

• Insurance in India
• Insurance
• LIC Housing Finance

References

1. "How LIC's IPO, India's biggest, ended in a downbeat debut". Live Mint. 17 May 2022. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
2. "Shareholding Pattern". licindia.in. 18 July 2024. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
3. ^ "Life Insurance Corporation Ltd. Financial Statements" (PDF). bseindia.com.
4. Laskar, Anirudh (20 May 2022). "LIC plans makeover of investment strategy". mint. Retrieved 10 February 2023.
5. "Stock Market Today: LIC Beats SBI To Become The Most Valuable PSU". Bru Times News.
6. Anushka. "LIC – Life Insurance Corporation Of India". My LIC India. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
7. "59th Annual Report". licindia.in. Archived from the original on 26 August 2016. Retrieved 10 September 2023.
8. "LIC breaks into Fortune 500 list, Reliance jumps 51 places". The Indian Express. 4 August 2022. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
9. "History". LIC. Archived from the original on 16 December 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
10. "Lunch on lotus leaves". www.telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
11. Bhushan, Sasi. "Excerpts: Feroze Gandhi: A Political Biography by Shashi Bhushan". www.cse.iitk.ac.in. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
12. "LIC IPO: Good news for LIC insurance policy holders! Modi government confirms this big development". Zee Business. 10 February 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
13. "Government proposes to hike LIC authorised capital to Rs 25,000 crore". The Economic Times. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
14. "India: Govt plans to increase authorized capital of LIC by 2.5x to prepare for IPO". Asia Insurance Review. 8 March 2021. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
15. "LIC IPO size cut by one-third, valuation by half". www.fortuneindia.com. 12 April 2022. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
16. Kar, Sharmita (4 May 2022). "LIC IPO: India's biggest IPO has opened - Here are 10 things you should know". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
17. Ranjan, Abhinav (10 May 2022). "LIC IPO closes: Allotment on May 12, check grey market premium". India TV. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
18. Sinha, Vaishnawi (30 January 2024). "LIC shares touch record high two years after IPO, market value spikes by $30 billion". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
19. Sadashiv K, Sakshi. "LIC's Delayed Action on Security Warnings Exposed Data of Millions to Potential Exploits". MediaNama.
20. "OWASP Top 10:2021". OWASP.
21. "API Security: Threats, Best Practices, Challenges, and Way forward using AI" (PDF). CSK CERT-In.
22. "Securing IIS 7.0 Web Server". CERT-In.
23. "Guidelines for Secure Application Design, Development, Implementation & Operations". CERT-In.
24. "Insecure Direct Object Reference Prevention Cheat Sheet". OWASP.
25. CA. Nirmal Ghorawat (31 January 2013). "Perspectives on Life Insurance Industry in India « CA. Nirmal Ghorawat's Blog". Canirmalg.wordpress.com. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
26. "LIC Scholarship". 22 December 2021.
27. https://licindia.in/lic-s-bima-sakhi
28. https://www.india.gov.in/bima-sakhi-yojana
29. https://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/news_updates/pm-modi-launches-lics-bima-sakhi-yojana/
30. https://pmindiawebcast.nic.in/2024/9dec24.html
31. https://bimatimes.com/bima-sakhi
32. "Union government, LIC to divest over 60 per cent stake in IDBI Bank". The Economic Times. Retrieved 10 November 2022.

External links

• Official website

v t e Insurance in India
Companies	Agriculture Public sector Agriculture Insurance Company of India General Bajaj Allianz Bharti AXA Aditya Birla Capital Cholamandalam MS Edelweiss HDFC ERGO Future Generali ICICI Lombard IFFCO-Tokio Reliance General Royal Sundaram SBI General Shriram General TATA AIG Zurich Kotak GI Public sector National Insurance New India Assurance Oriental Insurance United India Insurance Health Care (Religare) ManipalCigna Health Max Bupa Star Health Public sector Employees' State Insurance (ESI) Life Aegon Aviva Bajaj Allianz Bharti AXA Birla Sun Life Canara HSBC Life Edelweiss Exide HDFC Life ICICI Prudential Max Life Peerless PNB MetLife Reliance Nippon Life Kotak Mahindra Life Sahara Life SBI Life Sriram Life Tata AIA Public sector Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) Reinsurance GIC-Re Repository CDSL NSDL
Policy	Agricultural insurance in India National Health Policy
Government schemes	Ayushman Bharat Yojana Biju Swastya Kalyan Yojana PM Fasal Bima Yojana PM Suraksha Bima Yojana PM Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana
Legislations	Insurance Act, 1938 Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956
Other	CISR Insurance Institute of India Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) Insurance Repository in India
Category

v t e Major insurance and reinsurance companies
Insurance	Americas Aflac Ambac American Family Insurance American International Group Berkshire Hathaway Chubb Cigna CNA Financial CUNA Mutual Group FM Global The Hartford Humana Liberty Mutual Markel Corporation Manulife MassMutual MetLife Mutual of America Mutual of Omaha National Life Group Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company New York Life Insurance Company Northwestern Mutual Ohio National Life Insurance Company Pacific Life Progressive Corporation Prudential Financial State Farm Sun Life Financial UnitedHealth Group Unum USAA Western & Southern Financial Group EMEA Aegon N.V. Ageas Allianz Aon Assicurazioni Generali Aviva Axa Bâloise CNP Assurances Folksam Groupama LähiTapiola Mapfre Mutua Madrileña NN Group Old Mutual Phoenix Group Prudential plc Royal London Group RSA Insurance Group Sampo Group Storebrand Suva Swiss Life Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company Zurich Insurance Group APAC AIA Group China Life Insurance Company China Pacific Insurance Company Dai-ichi Life Great Eastern Life Kyobo Life Insurance Life Insurance Corporation Meiji Yasuda Life MS&AD Insurance Group Nippon Life Income Insurance Ping An Insurance QBE Insurance Singlife SOMPO Holdings Sumitomo Life T&D Holdings Taikang Life Insurance Tokio Marine
Reinsurance	Arch Capital Group Axa XL China Re Everest Group General Insurance Corporation of India Hannover Re Instituto de Resseguros do Brasil Korean Re Lloyd's of London Munich Re Reinsurance Group of America RenaissanceRe SCOR SE Swiss Re TransRe
Methodology: SWFI ranking by Total Assets List of largest insurance companies

• 2022 initial public offerings
• Financial services companies based in Mumbai
• Government-owned insurance companies of India
• Financial services companies established in 1956
• Life insurance companies of India
• Indian companies established in 1956
• Life Insurance Corporation
• Mutual funds of India
• Exchange-traded funds
• Investment management companies of India
• 1956 establishments in Bombay State
• Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India
• Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange