Govt Appoints Siddhartha Mohanty As Chairman Of LIC Till June 2024

The government has decided to abolish the post of chairman at Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India from end-June 2024. The insurance behemoth, instead, would be headed by a managing director and CEO.

In a notification issued on Friday, the government appointed Interim Chairman Siddhartha Mohanty the chairman of LIC until June 29, 2024. He would then take over the role of MD & CEO until June 7, 2025, that is until the age of 62 years. 

The Life Insurance Corporation of India (Employees) Pension (Amendment) Rules and The LIC Act 1959 was amended in 2021 for doing away with the post of chairman and the appointment of MD & CEO.

“Appointment of Shri Siddhartha Mohanty, managing director, LIC, a) as chairperson of LIC for a period with effect from the date of assumption of charge of the office till 29.06.2024

 b) Thereafter, as chief executive officer and managing director till 07.06.2025 i.e. up to the date of attaining the age of 62 years, or till further orders, whichever is earlier in a pay scale of Rs 2,25,000 (fixed),” a notification issued by the Department of Personnel and Training stated.

Mohanty was given the additional charge of chairman of LIC on March 14 this year for three months, after M R Kumar’s term ended.

After the formation of the Narendra Modi government came in 2014, it decided to split the chairman’s post at public sector banks into non-executive chairman and managing director and CEO.

State Bank of India (SBI), however, is the only exception, which is still headed by a chairman. Like SBI, LIC also has four managing directors.

Mohanty joined LIC in 1985 as an apprentice officer and has around four decades of experience in the financial services industry. Before becoming LIC’s MD in February 2021, Mohanty was chief executive officer of LIC Housing Finance.

Mohanty is a veteran in the financial services industry with almost four decades of experience. He started his career as a direct recruit officer with LIC in 1985 and rose through the ranks. Before joining LIC Housing, Mohanty was the executive director at LIC in charge of the legal department of the insurer. In the corporation, Mohanty has worked in the areas of marketing, HR, investments, and legal. He has served as chief of investments (Monitoring), regional head of the marketing vertical of LIC's Western Zone spanning the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa. He was also senior divisional manager in charge of Raipur and Cuttack divisions of LIC.

Mohanty is a post-graduate in Political Science with a degree in law. He has also done his post-graduation in Business Management and is a Licentiate from the Insurance Institute of India.