LIC is a flourishing money tree: IPO plan must not shake it too hard

LIC IPO: All too often in the past, the government has used the insurer LIC as its piggybank to buy shares in state companies nobody wanted

Life Insurance Corp. of India was seeded by the government in New Delhi, but nourishing the sapling to a colossus with 39.6 trillion rupees ($525 billion) in assets under management — and more lives assured than Pakistan’s population — has fallen on generations of loyal customers. Which is why LIC’s upcoming initial public offering, India’s biggest ever share sale, raises a troubling question: Will a cash-strapped state get greedy and end up shaking the money tree so hard that it stops bearing fruit for future policyholders?

LIC was born in 1956 after 25 private insurance players went bust in India