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Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is all set to have four managing directors (MDs), which is the maximum permissible strength, in the next one month.
Finance ministry sources said that the two new MDs will be appointed within the next one month. The officials added that Usha Sangwan, the present executive director-corporate communication has been short-listed for the post of MD. If her name is cleared, she will become the first woman to hold the MD's post.
According to the norms, LIC has the capacity to have four MDs, apart from the chairman as part of its top management. However, in the recent years, owing to structural changes in the institution this has not been the case.
During the tenure of TS Vijayan in LIC, there were three managing directors. When he retired from this post in November 2012, there were two MDs, namely Sushobhan Sarkar and Thomas Mathew T.
When former chairman DK Mehrotra retired from the corporation in May 2013, Mathew was appointed as the in-charge chairman, by the finance ministry till he retired in the end of June. At the same time, SK Roy was appointed as one of the two MDs, alongwith existing MD Sarkar.
Following Mathew's retirement in June, Roy was appointed the LIC Chairman, with Sushobhan Sarkar as the only MD of LIC. To fill this void, in July 2013, SB Mainak who was ED-Investments was appointed at MD. Finance ministry officials had then told Business Standard that there were two more vacancies for the MD post at LIC, with exactly two candidates for the post.
In April 2013, the government had interviewed five candidates for the post of the chairman of LIC including managing director Sushobhan Sarkar, LIC Housing Finance MD & CEO V K Sharma and three executive directors - SB Mainak, SK Roy and Usha Sangwan.
Since Roy holds the chairman post, the other four individuals will hold the MD post.
LIC is the country's largest insurer with 83% market share in terms of number of policies and more than 71% in terms of premiums. LIC collected new business premiums of Rs 76,245.63 crore for the financial year 2012-13.
The MD shifts at LIC
-May 2011: TS Vijayan moved to the MD post, becoming one of the three MDs at LIC
-November 2012: Vijayan quits, LIC left with two MDs
-April 2013 :Govt interviews five candidates for LIC chairman post. LIC managing director Sushobhan Sarkar, LIC Housing Finance MD & CEO V K Sharma and three executive directors SB Mainak, SK Roy and Usha Sangwan appear for interview.
-May 2013 :Chairman DK Mehrotra retires; Thomas Mathew T, one of the two MDs appointed as in-charge chairman
-May 2013 :SK Roy, zonal manager at LIC appointed MD
-June 2013: Mathew retires; Roy appointed LIC Chairman
-June 2013 :LIC left with only one MD Sushobhan Sarkar
-July 2013 :SB Mainak, ED-Investments appointed as LIC MD
-July & August 2013: LIC set to get two more MDs, VK Sharma and Usha Sangwan likely to become the two new MDs. Sangwan to be first woman to hold MD post.
