Can PSU insurers invest in tobacco companies? Bombay HC to decide

The New India Assurance Company also has a 1.7% stake in Hyderabad-based cigarette maker VST

A group of eminent citizens, including Tata Trusts’ Managing Trustee R Venkataramanan and Tata Memorial Hospital’s surgeon Pankaj Chaturvedi, has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Bombay High Court, seeking directions to public sector insurance firms to sell their holding in tobacco companies to protect public health. 

The Specified Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India (SUUTI) (11.1 per cent), along with public sector insurance firms Life Insurance Corporation (14.3 per cent), General Insurance Corporation (1.8 per cent), New India Assurance (1.8 per cent), Oriental Insurance (1.5 per cent), National Insurance Company (1.2 per cent), holds stakes worth