(iii) Investment Instituions (IIs)

Three investment institutions also came up in the public sector, which are yet another kind of FIs, i.e., the LIC (1956), the UTI (1964) and the GIC (1971).

In the present time they are no more known as DIIs (Domestic Investment Institutions) or DFIs (Domestic Financial Institutions). LIC is now the public sector insurance company in the life segment, GIC was been converted into a public sector re-insurance company in 2000, while UTI was converted into a mutual fund company in 2002. Now these investment institutions (IIs) are no more like the past. LIC is now called an ‘insurance company’, part of the Indian Insurance Industry and is the lone public sector playing in the life insurance segment competing with the private life insurance companies. Similarly, the UTI is now part of the Indian Mutual Fund industry and the lone such firm in the public sector competing with other private sector mutual funds. Similarly, the earstwhile four public sector general insurance companies are part of India’s general insurance industry and competing with private companies in the area (they were Holding Comapnies of the GIC— now these are owned by the GoI directly and GIC only looks after its ‘re- insurance’ business). This is why we do not get the use of the term ‘IIs’ in recent times in any of the GoI official documents.