Arrogating to itself the sole monopoly of insurance business in post independent India, LIC has amassed a huge corpus of ₹40 trillion. Seventy per cent of this stands invested in government securities, bonds and debentures and 24 per cent (approx ₹10 trillion) in stock markets. Whereas in FY 20-21 it made a profit of ₹37,000 crore in stocks it made less than ₹3,000 crore from its core business — insurance. Private insurance companies together have already surpassed LIC in insurance vertical and are more digitally savvy.

Hitherto a cocooned entity with patronage, LIC may not be able to promptly match their business acumen unless it reforms its staid work culture . In essence LIC, now a giant mutual fund, will be judged post the IPO by the stock market less on its skill as an insurer and more as a trader in stocks to then invite attendant risks in an open market.

R Narayanan

Navi Mumbai

Corporate misgovernance

This is with reference to the report ' ABG Shipyard's account turned NPA during UPA regime (February 15 Mounting corporate frauds have become almost a daily news event in our country an

Even though vast frauds involving thousands of crores rupees of public money are happening in bank loan accounts, the delay in the issue coming to the public domain is a cause for concern The internal and the external audits\RBI audits have really not functioned meticulously, anking several borrowers flee the country a

It is high time anks and tuditors detected bad loan cases without delay iby vigorous monitoring of especially all big and corporate boan accounts

Katuru Durga Prasad Rao

Hyderabad

BJP’s strategy

This refers to “Framing the political debate” by Arun Maira (February 15). BJP under Narendra Modi has scored over the liberals by evolving a strategy in which economy and politics are integrated to serve a wider population of India. Occasional strokes of Hindutva and a craving for India’s past glory are aimed at keeping the hard core majority community tied to it and those who feel that secular parties have overplayed the minority card.

It uses economic interventions to revive and sustain GDP at macro level and has introduced several welfare schemes for girls’ education, farmers’ income, direct payment of subsidies, easy access to banking, crop insurance, health insurance, etc.— they help the poor irrespective of religion or caste at micro level. Its Achilles’ heel is economic inequity caused by focus on growth at all costs.

The Indian liberals have made another mistake in implementing a strategy which is directed against an individual rather than an ideology.

YG Chouksey

Pune

Raw deal for PMC depositors

Apropos the news report ‘Depositors at losing end’ (February 15), it is painful to note that the depositors of erstwhile PMC Bank would be incurring huge loss post merger with Unity Small Finance Bank. As per the amalgamation scheme of RBI, the loss making bank found a viable buyer which took over the assets and liabilities at throwaway prices. Neither the new buyer nor the regulator seem to have given due diligence on safe keeping depositors’ hard earned money. Depositors of the PMC Bank are being put through simdship for no fault of theirs, in getting their principal back, leave alone the interest benefit. Provisions of DICGC help the small depositors in getting their money secured to some extent.

Despite the existence of several regulatory controls via periodical inspections, audits and surprise checks, depositors seem to have not been given timely alerts about the bank's health. It is time to fix the loopholes in the existing regulatory system and existing provisions atrengthened to save the common man's money and uphold the credibility of the regulator.

RV Baskaran

Chennai

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