The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is an Indian

public sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, pu ...

life insurance Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typical ...

company headquartered in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

. It is India's largest insurance company as well as the largest

institutional investor An institutional investor is an entity that pools money to purchase securities, real property, and other investment assets or originate loans. Institutional investors include commercial banks, central banks, credit unions, government-linked ...

with total

assets under management In finance, assets under management (AUM), sometimes called fund under management, refers to the total market value of all financial assets that a financial institution—such as a mutual fund, venture capital firm, or depository institutio ...

worth as of March 2025. It is under the ownership of

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

and administrative control of the

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...

. The Life Insurance Corporation of India was established on 1 September 1956, when the

Parliament of India The Parliament of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Government of India, Government of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok ...

passed the Life Insurance of India Act, nationalising the insurance industry in India. Over 245 insurance companies and provident societies were merged. LIC reported 29 crore (290 million) policyholders as of 2019, a total life fund of . The company also reported having settled 2.6 crore (26 million) claims in 2018–19. It ranked 98th on the 2022

Fortune Global 500 The ''Fortune'' Global 500, also known as Global 500, is an annual ranking of the top 500 corporations worldwide as measured by revenue. The list is compiled and published annually by '' Fortune'' magazine. Methodology Until 1989, it listed o ...

list with a revenue of and a profit of .

History

Founding organisations

The Oriental Life Insurance Company, the first company in India to offer life insurance coverage, was established in

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

in 1818 by Bipin Das Gupta. Its primary target market was India.

Surendranath Tagore Surendranath Tagore (1872–1940) was an Indian author, literary scholar, translator and entrepreneur. He is particularly noted for translating a number of works of Rabindranath Tagore to English. Early life and background A member of the Ta ...

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 National Insurance (NI) is a fundamental component of the welfare state in the United Kingdom. It acts as a form of social security, since payment of NI contributions establishes entitlement to certain state benefits for workers and their famil ...

(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 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. 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.

Nationalisation in 1956

In 1956, parliamentarian

Feroze Gandhi Feroze Jehangir Gandhi (12 September 1912 – 8 September 1960) was an Indian freedom fighter, politician and journalist. He served as a member of the provincial parliament between 1950 and 1952, and later a member of the Lok Sabha, the Lower ...

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 ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

owner Seth Ramkrishna Dalmia, was sent to prison for two years.

Initial public offering

Finance Minister A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...

Nirmala Sitharaman Nirmala Sitharaman (born 18 August 1959) is an Indian economist, politician and a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) serving as the Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs of the Government of India since 2019. ...

announced a proposal for an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

(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 authorised capital to 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. As of December 2024, LIC’s listed holdings were valued at approximately $177 billion. By February 18, 2025, they declined to $166.5 billion, reflecting a 5.7% mark-to-market loss of $10.1 billion.

Structure

The Central Office of LIC is based out of

. There are a total of 8 zonal offices, located in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

Kanpur Kanpur (Hindustani language, Hindustani: ), originally named Kanhapur and formerly anglicized as Cawnpore, is the second largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Uttar Pradesh after Lucknow. It was the primary ...

Bhopal Bhopal (; ISO 15919, ISO: Bhōpāl, ) is the capital (political), capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes,'' due to ...

and

Patna Patna (; , ISO 15919, ISO: ''Paṭanā''), historically known as Pataliputra, Pāṭaliputra, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the state of Bihar in India. According to the United Nations, ...

Liberalisation post 2000s

In August 2000, the

Indian Government The Government of India (ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of 36 states and union territor ...

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 Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is a business, economics and investing term representing the mean annualized growth rate for compounding values over a given time period. CAGR smoothes the effect of volatility of periodic values that can render ...

(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 organisation. 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 .

Holdings

The LIC invests in sectors such as banks, cement, chemicals and fertilisers, 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.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Life Insurance Corporation Of India 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 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