Page 9 - Insurance Times March 2017 Sample

LIC of India

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Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana 2017 gets green signal Hemant Bhargava ap-
in the budget pointed as MD of LIC

The Cabinet has given its approval to Rs 60,000 (annually). Maximum pur- H e m a n t
Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana (VPBY), chase price was Rs 6,66,665. The Bhargava has
2017. Life Insurance Corporation of scheme offered an as- taken over as a
India (LIC) will take in- sured return of 9% on Managing Di-
charge of the scheme and monthly payment basis, rector of Life
aims to provide social se- which amounted to annu- Insurance Cor-
curity to senior citizens. It alized return of 9.38%. poration of In-
will give an assured pen- dia, to fill the vacancy created by the
sion, offering an 8% per "The purpose of VPBY retirement of Sushobhan Sarkar in
annum guaranteed rate of 2017 is to help those citi- 2014. With this appointment, LIC will
zens who rely on interest now have two MDs, as Usha Sangwan
return for 10 years, with
income from their retirement savings was the only Managing Director since
an option for pension on a monthly,
quarterly, half-yearly or annual basis. to cope with lower interest rate envi- VK Sharma was elevated as Chairman
ronment. The 8% interest is competi- last December.
The scheme offered annuities in tive given very low, even negative in
monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and an- some cases, interest rate environment
nual modes, varying, between Rs 500 globally," said Mukul G. Asher, profes- LIC cuts 20% equity in-
and Rs 5,000 (monthly), Rs 1,500 and sorial fellow, Lee Kuan Yew School of vestment
Rs 15,000 (quarterly), Rs 3,000 and Rs Public Policy, National University of
30,000 (half-yearly) and Rs 6,000 and Singapore. Life Insurance
Corp. of India
LIC hikes their gratuity to Rs 3 lakh to retain agents has cut its eq-
uity invest-
Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has recently hiked gratuity for its over ment target
a million agents to Rs 3 lakh To retain them and encourage them to do more for the year ending 31 March 2017
business. The Corporation makes as much as 94% of its premium income through to Rs 50,000 crore from Rs 60,000
its over 1.1 million agents, while the private sector rivals net around half their crore because of adverse market con-
business through the agency route.
ditions. Although it collected higher
During the past financial year, the Corporation recruited 245,000 agents but as new business premium this year as
many as 340,000 agents got terminated or voluntarily left during the year. As compared to last year, due to lack of
of March 2016, LIC had 1.06 million agents, while this rose to 1.10 million as of opportunities in an insipid equity
end-January. But this year so far, LIC has added 45,000 agents on net basis. market, the insurer will invest the

"So far this financial year, we recruited 270,000 agents while 225,000 were surplus money earned from premiums
terminated/voluntarily left the Corporation, which is a net addition of 45,000. in fixed income papers instead of
This takes our total agency strength to 1.105 million as of end-January," an LIC stocks, according to two people famil-
official told. iar with LIC's plans.
The Insurance Times, March 2017 9

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