On 23 December 2008, a massive protest was organised across the country by the public sector insurance employees against the favourable position opted by the government in amending the Insurance Act and the General Insurance Business (Nationalisation) Act.

The one-day strike, in which around  1.6 lakh employees of public sector insurance firms participated, was an expression of their anger at the government`s move of tabling the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill in the Rajya Sabha on 22 December 2008, and the Life Insurance Corporation Act in the Lok Sabha.

According to the officials of the All India Insurance Employees` Association, in an era of global economic crisis, India is less affected only because of its strong public sector banks and insurance sector. When the global economic meltdown has forced many to overseas countries to nationalise their insurance companies, the Indian government, is trying to raise the foreign direct investment (FDI) cap.

The protestors raised slogans and demonstrated at various insurance offices, raising slogans against the government`s proposal to raise the FDI limit in the private insurance sector to 49 per cent from the present 26 per cent, and allowing the four government-owned general insurance companies to approach the capital markets. According to official sources, the four insurance companies have a total asset base of Rs 80,000 crores, and a reserve of Rs 14,000 crores, which is sufficient capital to augment financial strength and enable expansion.

All Class I, III and IV employees in the Life Insurance Corporation of India and all Class III and IV employees in the four subsidiaries of the General Insurance Corporation participated in the strike. The union officials claimed that the strike was a massive success.