D K Mehrotra appointed LIC's interim chairman

Uncertainty continued to loom over the appointment of the chairman of Life Insurance Corporation of India, the country's largest life insurance company.

Dinesh Kumar Mehrotra, one of LIC's managing directors, was appointed interim chairman of the country's largest insurer on Thursday.

"D K Mehrotra, managing director of the Life Insurance Corporation of India will, in addition to his duties as managing director, hold current charge of the post of chairman of the corporation for a period of three months or till further orders, whichever is earlier," the insurer said in a release.

The uncertainty over LIC's top job arose when former chairman TS Vijayan was denied an extension after his term came to an end on May 2.

He was then appointed a managing director, a post he held before being elevated to the post of chairman in 2006.

After Vijayan's term as chairman ended, the government gave R K Singh, additional secretary in the finance ministry, the additional charge of chairman.

The government had formed a committee, headed by

R

Gopalan, secretary, department of economic affairs of the finance ministry, to select the next chairman.

Mehrotra, who joined LIC as a direct recruit in 1977, was executive director for international operations before becoming a managing director in July 2005.

He was also a contender for the chairman's post in 2006.

The three other managing directors of LIC are TS Vijayan, Thomas Mathew and AK Dasgupta.

In 2010-11, LIC accounted for Rs 86,445 crore (Rs 864.45 billion) of the of Rs 125,826 crore (Rs 1,258.26 billion) collected by the industry, by selling new policies.

LIC is the largest institutional investor in the country, managing assets worth more than Rs 12 lakh crore (Rs 12 trillion).