Winning Bizness Desk

Mumbai. The Government of India has appointed Siddharth Mohanty as the new Chairperson of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). He will hold the post till 29 June 2024. He will be the CEO and MD of LIC till June 2025. Siddharth Mohanty is one of the four Managing Directors of LIC. He was made the interim chairman of LIC for three months in March. Prior to joining LIC as MD, Mohanty was the MD and Chief Executive Officer of LIC Housing Finance. LIC Housing Finance is one of the largest mortgage financiers in the country. Siddharth Mohanty was given the responsibility of interim chairman after former LIC chairman Mangalam Ramasubramaniam Kumar did not get an extension.

Currently LIC under scrutiny over Adani funding

In 2019, the government made MR Kumar the chairman of LIC. He was on this post till 30 June 2021. Kumar got the first extension from July 2021 to March 2022. Then got a second extension from April 2022 to March 2023. After this, the government had decided not to extend Kumar's tenure. The decision came at a time when LIC's investment in the Adani Group was under intense scrutiny due to allegations by American short seller Hindenburg Research. Siddharth Mohanty was made the MD of LIC on 1 February 2021. Then he replaced TC Sushil Kumar, who retired on 31 January 2021. LIC is headed by a chairman and four MDs.

LIC is the largest insurance company

LIC is the largest insurance company in India and 5th largest in the world in terms of Gross Written Premiums (GWP). It is also the 10th largest insurance company in the world by total assets. The company has 13.35 lakh agents and services policies worth Rs 27.80 crore, making it the third strongest insurance brand globally. The retirement age of the chairman in LIC has now been raised to 62 years. That is why Mohanty has got two years. In January this year, Rajkumar and BC Patnaik retired as MDs in March. Since then there was a shortage of MDs in LIC. BC Patnaik has been made member (life) of insurance regulator Irdai.