The government has initiated the process of appointing a successor to outgoing Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) Chairman S K Roy, who sought voluntary retirement in June, a good two years before his term was to come to an end. Roy had written to the government to relieve him of his duties from June itself, for personal reasons. However, he is still serving as the government is said to not have decided on when he will demit office. The approval of his request for being relieved of his duties is subject to the consent of the Cabinet Committee on Appointments. In the recent past, there has not been any instance of LIC chairman stepping down before the completion of their tenure. However, prior to 1985, there was one case of a chairman taking voluntary retirement, according to former LIC officials. Roy joined LIC in 1981 as a direct recruit officer. Under his chairmanship, LIC saw rejig in products and had a revamp, with the traditional product guidelines by the regulator leading to almost all of its products in the market. This led to a big drop in new business premium collections for LIC, post which the insurer managed to see a growth in first-year premia by launching new products.