LIC's assests at Rs 5 lakh crore

The total assets of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) have grown to about Rs 500,000 crore (Rs 5 trillion) from Rs 381.90 crore (Rs 3.819 billion) five decades ago at the time of nationalisation, a senior official said in Coimbatore.

With only 549,000 policy holders in 1956, the corporation has now grown multifold, with policy holders crossing 190 million in 2006, R Palaniswamy, senior divisional manager, LIC Coimbatore division, said.

At a function on 'Zindagi Express,' a highly innovative rail exhibition, part of the LIC's golden jubilee celebrations, Palaniswamy said LIC was formed by merging 244 small financial institutions and insurance companies.

The corporation at present has more than 10 lakh (1 million) agents, which was about 83,000, fifty years ago, he said.

In the seven-coach expo, inaugurated by Union Minister of State for Finance P K Bansal at Delhi on April 26, the claim settlement copy of Mahatma Gandhi, in 1944 to which C Rajagopalachari and Pyarelal were witnesses, was an object of interest to many.

Also on display were the settlement papers of the money back policy of former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi.

One coach in the express has been exclusively devoted for health check up, and Coibatore-based K G Hospital has sent a team of doctors, he said.

After two days' stay, the exhibition move to other places and covering a total of 39 stations throughout the country, it would conclude at Delhi on July 17, Palaniswamy said.