On expanding its presence outside the country, he said this would be dependent on the regulations of the countries as well on the structure that would exist in India once the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA) comes into force. The `emerging environment' would be the determining factor, he added.

Kohli, who was in Pune on a "routine visit", said the insurance behemoth was reorganising and restructuring itself to become competitive. This has resulted in branch offices becoming profit centres, with an emphasis on technology. He admitted that domestic productivity norms were lower than international ones and the corporation is engaged in training programmes to enhance these.

In an effort to overcome the popular perception of an indifferent bureaucracy, the LIC is also planning an aggressive advertising campaign, slated to kick off by December 1998, highlighting its achievements in various sectors. However, he declined to put a figure on the allocations for this campaign.

Gearing up for competition, LIC will introduce new products in the second half of the current fiscal. These would largely be improvements on existing ones, would not be specific to any niche market while some could have new features, he admitted. He pointed to the corporation's performance during 1997-98, when its business in the rural areas doubled. For the current year, he anticipated a 5 per cent increase over the 1997-98 figure. This would be achieved through a 15 to 20 per cent increase in the number of agents, from the present level of 5 lakhs.

On the issue of setting up operations overseas, Kohli said the LIC already has a presence in Mauritius, Fiji, Bahrain and the UK. He did not rule out exploiting the `emerging environment' which would enable the new, customer friendly LIC to tap these markets.