Date:16/09/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/09/16/stories/2005091602021900.htm

Back LIC plans to set up data warehouse

Our Correspondent

Madurai , Sept. 15

LIFE Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India is working on establishing a data warehouse for its sixteen-crore plus policyholders in the country.

The project, with an automatic facility for updates on policies, would take two years to complete. The policyholders will be given customer IDs to enable them to access information on their policies from any LIC office, said the LIC Chairman, Mr A. K. Shukla.

Addressing newspersons on Thursday after inaugurating a satellite office of LIC at Melur (near Madurai), the Chairman said that 29 satellite offices would be opened across the country on an experimental basis. They will be electronically connected to the main branches. These offices will collect premium , and also receive and transmit requests from policyholders to the head office. The experiment will enable the organisation to take up the expansion of improved services to rural areas, he said.

As part of its corporate social responsibility initiative, LIC has will undertake tree plantation on land provided by the Government, the Chairman added. To a question on competition from the private sector, the Chairman said it brought about awareness and helped to expand the market.

Life insurance coverage at present is only 2.3 per cent in the country, while the coverage in Asia is 6 per cent.

Unlike unit-linked insurance policies that are related to market movements, LIC has introduced `Bima Gold' this year to cover risk and return of premium (which is similar to a money-back policy) for the increasingly mobile young population, Mr Shukla added. He hinted that the corporation is having a big plan to enter micro financing once the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) gives clearance for the step.