LIC gears upto achieve growth target after FM report card

Indian insurance giant Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) is gearing up for some serious business. After finance minister P Chidambaram visited LIC and expressed dissatisfaction with the PSU's performance in May, a series of internal and board meetings were held to address the problem.

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During the latest meeting on Saturday, the board decided to not just refurbish the existing process but also set up small 300 offices across India by end of June, reports CNBC-TV18's Manasvi Ghelani, quoting sources.

According to sources finance minister P Chidambaram visited LIC's  Mumbai office in May month and handed over a list of about 20 strategic changes to be made in the organisation to achieve a desired year-end target of about Rs 33,000 crore.

The changes include refurbishing of marketing processes, a change in the investment strategy and also changes in the products on offer. With the finance minister monitoring LIC's performance, officials at the PSU are tightening loose ends. Around 19,000 underperforming agents have been terminated in the last two months alone. At the same, one lakh fresh recruits are being trained to achieve at least 50 percent of the premium collection target by September 2013.

A series of internal meetings and board meetings were conducted in June. In the latest meeting, the members included economic affairs secretary Arvind Mayaram and financial services secretary, Rajiv Takru and a decision to open 300 mini offices across India during this week was finalised.

Current LIC chairman Thomas Mathew has confirmed that these offices are a part of LIC's growth plan to set up 1,700 branches by December.