The Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is targeting an investment of Rs 40,000 crore in the year 2000-01 primarily in debt and money markets. The organisation aims at upgrading technology and connecting all branches and centres. "We want to leverage human capital to add value to enhance the functionality of the staff and improve the quality of the technology used," said LIC chairman G N Bajpai.
The insurance major is planning to change its thrust in the newly-opened insurance market by bundling of products in a manner that will benefit the customer in capital and financial markets, Bajpai said.
LIC is also focusing on widening its distribution chain laterally. "Right now we have approximately 850,000 agents selling policies. Now we are also looking at banks and corporates for marketing our products.
In addition, we will also launch a direct marketing effort to sell our products," he added.
LIC claims a compounding annual growth of 20.6 per cent in 1994-2000. It targets a 30 per cent growth for the current financial year. "No company can claim such a compounded growth rate," he said.
For the first half of the this fiscal, the corporation sold 130,000 policies, while it collected Rs 152 crore as premium. Bima Nivesh has seen a 100 per cent increase in premium income, while a 49.9 per cent increase in single premium policy growth.
"We want to enable LIC to remain ahead of competition by at least six months in terms of insurance. We will be proactive and not reactive," the chairman said.
