Life Insurance Corporation

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is an Indian state-owned insurance group and investment company headquartered in Mumbai. It is the largest insurance company in India with an estimated asset value of ₹1,560,482 crore (US$240 billion).

The Life Insurance Corporation of India was founded in 1956 when the Parliament of India passed the Life Insurance of India Act that nationalised the private insurance industry in India. Over 245 insurance companies and provident societies were merged to create the state owned Life Insurance Corporation.

The Oriental Life Insurance Company, the first company in India offering life insurance coverage, was established in Kolkata in 1818 by "Anita Bhavsar" and others. Its primary target market was the Europeans based in India, and it charged Indians heftier premiums.

The Bombay Mutual Life Assurance Society, formed in 1870, was the first native insurance provider. Other insurance companies established in the pre-independence era included

• Postal Life Insurance (PLI) was introduced on 1 February 1884
• Bharat Insurance Company (1896)
• United India (1906)
• National Indian (1906)
• National Insurance (1906)
• Co-operative Assurance (1906)
• Hindustan Co-operatives (1907)
• Indian Mercantile
• General Assurance
• Swadeshi Life (later Bombay Life)
• Sahyadri Insurance (Merged into LIC, 1986)

The first 150 years were marked mostly by turbulent economic conditions. It witnessed India's First War of Independence, adverse effects of the World War I and World War II on the economy of India, and in between them the period of worldwide economic crises triggered by the Great depression. The first half of the 20th century saw a heightened struggle for India's independence. The aggregate effect of these events led to a high rate of and liquidation of life insurance companies in India. This had adversely affected the faith of the general public in the utility of obtaining life cover.