Letter to BS: LIC lost money in 18 out of 21 public sector bank shares

Apropos the timely editorial, “In RBI’s Court” (July 3), you have rightly driven the point that the Life Insurance Corporation’s (LIC) takeover of the sick IDBI Bank is indeed a retrograde and regressive move which will boomerang on the insurance company sooner than later.

Already, LIC has lost money in 18 out of the 21 public sector bank shares according to a report in the columns of your newspaper on July 2. This is not at all a shock or surprise for those who have been tracking the economy for quite sometime. LIC, being a major player in the life insurance business, has been doing well, before the self-proclaimed economists of the political class started poking their nose in each and every activity and investments of the major insurer. 

If LIC is allowed to function independently and professionally, it could emerge as the proverbial golden goose. 

Day-to-day tinkering of the functioning and directed investments by the sole owner of LIC, namely, the government of India would only create a bigger mess analogous to the one prevailing in public sector banks now. Privatise the ailing IDBI bank so that the government is not forced to recapitalise it out of public wallet. B Venkateswaran Chennai

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