LIC mops Rs 1,650-crore new premium in UP

Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) has collected over Rs 1,650-crore new premium in Uttar Pradesh during the current financial year.

The country’s top life insurer collected total premium of Rs 1,656 crore, spanning 10 months between April 2015 and January 2016, LIC Senior Divisional Manager Aditya Gupta told the media here on Tuesday.

He said the company had sold nearly 1.67-million new policies in UP during the period and added the deficit monsoon last year had affected the company’s new premium income.

“At present, LIC has 23 different policies in its bouquet, to cater all the segments of society depending on their need and premium-paying capacity,” he underlined.

In the past two months, the public sector behemoth had launched three new policies -- Jeevan Labh, Jeevan Shikhar and Jeevan Pragati.

To boost the penetration of life insurance products in the rural areas, LIC is running a Bima Gram scheme, wherein it incurs a portion of new premium income in community civil works in the selected village.

Under this scheme, LIC spends 25 per cent of premium collected, subject to a maximum of Rs 25,000, in installing solar energy lights or other installations such as tube well, hand pump, etc. The village, however, should have population of 5,000 or less and at least 100 new policies have been sold, he informed.

Besides, the company is networking with rural youth by appointing them as rural career agents, who receive stipend from LIC apart from other payouts and commissions.