{"id":4447,"date":"2016-05-10T11:17:54","date_gmt":"2016-05-10T05:47:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teekhapan.wordpress.com\/?p=4447"},"modified":"2016-05-10T11:17:54","modified_gmt":"2016-05-10T05:47:54","slug":"why-are-we-not-talking-about-bad-loans-of-lic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vivekkaul.com\/2016\/05\/10\/why-are-we-not-talking-about-bad-loans-of-lic\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Are We Not Talking About Bad Loans of LIC?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/p>\n On April 21, I wrote a column titled, Why It’s Best to Stay Away from Buying LIC Policies<\/a>. One feedback I got on the social media, primarily from insurance agents trying to sound intelligent, was that, if we don\u2019t have the Life Insurance Corporation(LIC) of India, who will carry out socially responsible investing.<\/p>\n None of these agents bothered to define socially responsible investing. But assuming that they know what it means, let me give you a very good example of what is definitely not socially responsible investing.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take the case of ITC, a company which still makes a bulk of its money from selling cigarettes. As of March 31, 2016, the LIC owned 14.39% stake in the company. As of yesterday i.e. May 9, 2016, this stake was worth Rs 37,510 crore.<\/p>\n What is a socially responsible insurance company doing by staying invested in a cigarette maker? In fact, in the recent past, this cigarette maker opposed the decision of the government for a larger pictorial warning on the cigarette packets.<\/p>\n Can these insurance agents who believe that LIC is into socially responsible investing tell the world at large what is India\u2019s largest insurance and investment company, hoping to achieve by staying invested in a company which sells the stick of death<\/em>?<\/p>\n Also, it is worth remembering here that the money that LIC manages and invests, are the hard earned savings of millions of Indians. And given the situation it should be managing this money in the best possible way.<\/p>\n But is it doing that? Take a look at the following table.<\/p>\n