LIC must bridge tech gap with private peers, says DFS secretary Nagaraju

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) must accelerate its digital transformation despite being an early technology adopter, department of financial services (DFS) secretary M. Nagaraju said on Wednesday at the launch of the insurer’s two new mobile applications.

Nagaraju said he was “a little surprised” to learn LIC was among the first companies in India to adopt mainframe systems. “If that is the case, we must reflect on why we have fallen behind in recent years in technology adoption. LIC is the dominant player in the insurance sector, and whatever it does sets benchmarks,” he said, adding that the company carries the responsibility of contributing to India’s goal of building a modern, inclusive and secure future.

The insurer launched MyLIC, a customer-facing app, and Super Sales Saathi, designed for intermediaries. The apps aim to offer a seamless, secure, and fully integrated digital insurance ecosystem, with features such as instant premium payments, policy tracking, paperless loans, e-KYC, and AI-driven sales tools for agents.

‘Faster execution needed’

Nagaraju welcomed the move but pushed for faster execution. “The private sector, everybody thinks, offers easy, comfortable and prompt response… but government organisations, including LIC, also provide,” he said, urging LIC to match private players and startups that are reshaping customers’ expectations. He emphasised that insurers must become digitally agile and powerful, warning that without a digitally responsive architecture, they risk losing relevance among younger consumers.

A key gap, Nagaraju said, is underutilisation of data. “You have massive data… we have not used this data,” he said, calling on LIC to “leverage the available data” more effectively.

India’s low insurance penetration remains another concern, and Nagaraju stressed the need for awareness and youth-focused products to address this. “The younger generation is very important… it’s very important to teach them how to protect themselves and also save for the long term,” he said. Nagaraju also advocated multilingual access to expand reach. “Everything we do should be in multiple languages… so that even high school educated adults will be able to understand,” he said.

While LIC’s apps promise improved customer experience and agent productivity, Nagaraju said trust and simplicity must remain central. He also said leadership depth was critical for LIC’s future, saying, “One of the important measures of success of a CEO is the legacy he leaves behind in the HR.”

“LIC stands for trust,” Nagaraju said, adding that the insurer must build on this foundation while modernising to support India’s long-term financial needs.