The proposal needs the board's approval before it is forwarded to the ministry of finance for final clearance.

The mega institution, whose life fund exceeded Rs 1,10,000 crore during 1997-98, currently has provision for one chairman and two managing directors.

The three new managing directors will look after the pension and provident businesses, international operations and real estate.

Currently, LIC's executive directors manage its pension and provident businesses and international operations.

"The institution, which has so far concentrated on its traditional business area of life insurance, has now identified each of the three segments as major thrust areas of future activity," sources said. Each of these has the potential to mobilise resources and give highreturns, they said.

The LIC-owned property in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Calcutta is valued at billions of dollars.

"Considering the business value of real estate, it is necessary to reorganise its operations to maximise returns," sources said.

On the pension and provident fund segments, they said that these are the "businesses of the future both in terms of resources and technology." Currently, LIC's pension activity constitutes only a minuscule portion of its total premium income.

Former union finance minister P Chidambaram had, in his 1996-97 budget, proposed allowing LIC to set up a joint venture for undertaking the pension business. However, the LIC Act will need to be amended to facilitate this proposal.

LIC has also decided to strengthen its operations in the UK to make it profitable by converting the London branch into a full-fledged subsidiary.

The new outfit will later expand its operations to the rest of Europe.

The corporation is seeking an entry into Asia and Africa, which have asizable NRI population. In India, the corporation will open NRI branches in metros to ensure prompt and efficient service to non-resident clients. LIC will soon unfold new strategies to cover both the ethnic and non-ethnic population in Fiji where it opened a branch last week, and manages a business fund of around Rs 36 crore.

In order to respond to globalisation, international operations have been identified as a thrust area, states LIC's corporate plan for 1998-99. At present, both the posts of managing directors are lying vacant. While one has been unoccupied for the last 18 months, the second fell vacant this April following the retirement of RN Tripathi who supervised marketing, office servicing, estate, building and inspection. The other departments that fall under the supervision of the second managing director are being overseen by chairman G Krishnamurthy. These include personnel, public relations and law.

Meanwhile, the ministry of finance has notified the extension of the LIC staff's retirementage from 58 to 60. A separate notification is expected to be issued shortly for extending the tenure of Krishnamurthy, who was due to step down this June.