After the passing of the General Insurance Business Nationalisation Act in 1972, National Insurance Company Limited, (which was incorporated in 1906 and registered in Kolkata) became one of the four subsidiaries of General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC). Wholly owned and controlled by the Government of India, it continued its operation as a GIC subsidiary, until the August of 2002. Subsequent to the notification of the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Amendment Act, on August 7, 2002, National Insurance Company Limited (NIC) de-linked from its holding company GIC and started operating, as a Government of India undertaking.
NIC has its head quarters in Kolkata. Being one of the leading public sector insurance companies of India, it effectively carries out the general insurance business in India. With a workforce of more than 16,000 personnel, NIC's has about 1000 offices, covering almost the entire country. Right from the metropolitan cities to the rural areas and remote townships, NIC has enveloped the length and breadth of India. While the domestic operations are carried out by the offices in India, the foreign operations are controlled from its branch offices in Nepal.
Services
With more than 200 policies under its belt, NIC caters to the diverse insurance requirements of its 14 million policyholders. The company offers services to approximately all the sectors in the Indian Economy - banking, telecom, aviation, shipping, information technology, power, oil & energy, agronomy, plantations, foreign trade, healthcare, tea, automobile, education, environment, space research and so on. Apart from this, NIC also covers the conventional insurance schemes, such as indemnity against fire, marine and other miscellaneous risks, to its customers.
Present Scenario
National Insurance Company Ltd has a paid-up share capital of Rs.100 crores. From the modest start of 500 million rupees, as its premium base in 1974, NIC's gross direct premium income has progressively grown to 4021.97 million rupees (as per 2007-08). As of March 2008, NIC's general reserve stood at 1457.25 million rupees, with an asset value of 8867.99 million rupees. It is due to this that NIC has been awarded 'AAA/STABLE' (the highest financial strength to meet policyholders' obligations), by CRISIL rating agency.
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