Hemant Bhargava Assumes Office as LIC's Second MD

Hemant Bhargava today took over as a managing director of Life Insurance Corporation, to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Sushobhan Sarkar in 2014. With this appointment, LIC will have two MDs as Usha Sangwan was the only managing director since V K Sharma was elevated as chairman last December. Bhargava's portfolio is yet to be assigned. Prior to this elevation Bhargava was heading the northern zone of LIC comprising states of Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Himachal, Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana and Chandigarh. The top LIC management consists of the chairman and four managing directors. The government is yet to name two more MDs, the interviews for which were held last November. In his earlier assignment, Bhargava was heading eastern zone, comprising states like Arunachal, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Bengal and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The Appointments Committee of Cabinet approved Bhargava's appointment till his superannuation in July 2019.

Bhargava is having rich experience of over 33 years in life insurance industry. He had been country head of LIC Mauritius, head of International Operations SBU and founded micro insurance vertical for LIC and has worked as executive director (marketing and product development). Moreover, he has the credit for being the founder chief executive of LIC Cards Services. Besides, he has worked as the founder president of Indo Mauritian Business Group in Mauritius in the past. Bhargava has served on the boards of National Mutual Fund, Mauritius, and LIC Mauritius Offshore. He was a member of Insurance Institute of India.