LIFE INSURANCE CORPORATION of India’s (LIC) is going to launch two exclusive policies for children in the 0-12 age group by month end.
“Of course, we do have insurance policy for children but the proposed two policies are special, as they are targeted at a particular age bracket”, LIC Chairman T S Vijayan told Hindustan Times here on Wednesday in an exclusive chat.
The chairman, who prior to the present assignment had been in charge of IT & business process engineering (BPR) as executive director, plans to leverage the experience in the corporation’s network expansion. The insurance major has earmarked Rs 360 crore for IT, up from last year’s Rs 275 crore.
“A specialised software has been developed to monitor micro-insurance and half of our policies have been made available online. Our aim is to go for e-insurance kind of thing,” said Vijayan.
He stated that the central server has been upgraded to deal with expansion in unit-linked policies, as the LIC has witnessed a major growth in the segment.
The corporation is working towards making its policies, services and payment of premiums accessible to policyholders online by adding special features to its existing portal. It has 21 lakh policyholders registered at present.
The LIC for the first time is going to outsource a part of its administrative functions related to micro-insurance, the chairman informed. Vijayan said since micro-insurance is associated to the grassroots level it becomes cumbersome to collect premiums. Therefore, the job has been assigned to NGOs through which the LIC would operate its policies.
LIC, the second largest property owner in the country after Indian Railways is trying to unlock the value of its huge real estate assets. Recently, LIC Bhopal put its 139 flats on sale. Referring to it, the chairman said the corporation is looking into commercial exploitation and developing real estates, but all under the IRDA regulations.
{{/usCountry}}LIC, the second largest property owner in the country after Indian Railways is trying to unlock the value of its huge real estate assets. Recently, LIC Bhopal put its 139 flats on sale. Referring to it, the chairman said the corporation is looking into commercial exploitation and developing real estates, but all under the IRDA regulations.
{{/usCountry}}Joining hands with the IDBI Ltd, the LIC is also into financing infrastructure projects, as there is a rise in demand for credit from the sector. “As per IRDA, 15 per cent of our investment goes to infrastructure projects and this year we’ve invested Rs 15,000 crore ,” he remarked.
dghose@hindustantimes.com