Postal Life Insurance- डाक जीवन बीमा

Postal Life Insurance (PLI) was introduced on 1st February 1884 with the express approval of the Secretary of State (for India) to Her Majesty, the Queen Empress of India. It was essentially a scheme of State Insurance mooted by the then Director General of Post Offices, Mr. F.R. Hogg in 1881 as a welfare scheme for the benefit of Postal employees and later extended to the employees of Telegraph department in 1888. In 1894, PLI extended insurance cover to female employees of P & T Department at a time when no other insurance company covered female lives. It is the oldest Life insurer in this country.

In the beginning, the upper limit of life insurance was only Rs 4000/- which has now increased to Rs 50 lacs (Rupees Fifty Lacs) and it will be effective as and when notified through a Gazette notification for all schemes combined - Endowment Assurance and Whole Life Assurance. Over the years, PLI has grown substantially from a few hundred policies in 1884 to more than 6.4 million policies as on 31.03.2015. It now covers employees of Central and State Governments, Central and State Public Sector Undertakings, Universities, Government aided Educational institutions, Nationalized Banks, Local bodies, autonomous bodies, joint ventures having a minimum of 10% Govt./PSU stake, credit co-operative societies etc. PLI also extends the facility of insurance to the officers and staff of the Defense services and Para-Military forces. Apart from single insurance policies, Postal Life Insurance also manages a Group Insurance scheme for the Extra Departmental Employees (Gramin Dak Sevaks) of the Department of Posts.

PLI is an exempted insurer under Section 118 (c) of the Insurance Act of 1938. It is also exempted under Section 44 (d) of LIC Act, 1956.

PLI has a consistent track record of highest bonus rate.