new delhi feb 27 in a big push to digital payment drive lic is planning to provide point of sale pos machines to its lakhs of agents who collect around rs 15 lakh crore premium annually as part of the strategy for the less cash economy lic is also gearing up for providing pos machines to its few lakhs active agents initially so that premium collection can be done in digitally a senior official said the stateowned insurance behemoth is also looking at initiating aadhaarlinked digital transactions the official said adding that this will help policy holders in the rural areas to avoid payment of premium in cash and cash handling burden of agents would come down significantly to begin with lic plans to provide pos machines to about 15 lakh agents that would be ramped up in the future the official added at the end of march 2016 there were 2016 lakh agents of life insurance corporation of india the finance ministry has also asked lic to set up a robust cyber security cell so that there cannot be any cyber fraud finance minister arun jaitley had announced a raft of measures including discounts on online payments for insurance policies rail tickets and highway toll charges as the government looked to promote digital cash post demonetisation as much as 10 per cent and 8 per cent discount has been offered in case of general and life insurance for buying new policy or paying premium online via psus websites lic posted a 1281 per cent growth in total assets to rs 2442 lakh crore during 9 months ended on december 31 2016 compared to rs 2164 lakh crore in the same period previous year it also posted a growth of 1243 per cent in total premium income at rs 145031 crore during the nine months to december 2016 as against rs 129001 crore for the corresponding period a year earlier with respect of new business premiums lic saw a 401 per cent growth for the 9month period of the current fiscal over the yearago period the insurer hopes to touch rs 35000 crore of new premiums by the end of march 2017 dp cs sa