Government may promote LIC executive director as chairman

Government is  planning to promote one of the executive directors of Life Insurance Corporation of India as its chairman. Current Chairman VK Sharma will retire by the end of December 2018. By tradition, one of the four managing directors is elevated as the Chairman. Three of its MDs will retire next year – Sunita Sharma in March 2019, B Venugopal in May 2019 and Hemant Bhargava in July 2019. Another MD Usha Sangwan already retired on September 30. No successor has yet been appointed for the post. LIC has five executive directors in areas of marketing, compliance, investments, audit, finance and accounts. There is also a chief finance officer apart from these officials. All appointments at LIC need a clearance from the appointments committee of the cabinet chaired by the prime minister. The process begins with an interview and a final shortlist of candidates. The ideal candidates in the past have been LIC officials who have worked across segments like marketing, products and investments. “The ideal candidate should have a residual service of at least three years. The department of financial services will begin the process shortly,” said an official. As per the LIC Act, the life insurer can have four managing directors, apart from the chairman. These five individuals are referred to as the top management. LIC MDs and chairmen usually have working experience of 15 to 20 years and should have worked across departments like marketing, investment and products.