Founding organisations Edit
The Oriental Life Insurance Company, the first company in India offering life insurance coverage, was established in Kolkata in 1818. Its primary target market was the Europeans based in India, and it charged Indians heftier premiums.[3] Surendranath Tagore had founded Hindustan Insurance Society, which later became Life Insurance Corporation.[4]
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 in the utility of obtaining life cover.
LIC 