Shankkar Aiyar, Visiting Senior Fellow at IDFC Institute, writes in BloombergQuint on the challenges the Life Insurance Corporation of India faces today, and the liabilities it may carry into the future. Excerpts:

"The Life Insurance Corporation has a tagline that says everything about its business – ‘zindagi ke saath bhi, zindagi ke baad bhi’, which loosely translated means ‘in life, and after life’. Whoever coined the tagline was perhaps prescient. The tag fits the profile of an insurer of assets just as well as it does its latest avatar as an insurer of sovereign liabilities.

Traditionally India’s largest insurer is called upon to rescue or revive sick state enterprises. It dons the robes of the white knight with deep pockets to help the government to swing over the moats of losses and deficit caused by sloth and profligacy. Of late it is expected to rescue dying enterprises – LIC as the Liabilities Insurance Corporation of India..."

Read the whole article here.