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R Doraiswamy, MD & CEO, LIC
Life Insurance Corporation of India is taking advantage of the volatility in the stock market and picking stocks that give the best returns to policyholders and investors, a top official said.
“We have been looking at the geopolitical tensions and issues from time to time and we continue to be an investor. We stay invested. We look at the value proposition available at such times also and see that the markets are also taken care of. But mostly our focus is to ensure that our investments are safe and they provide the returns that we are envisaging for our policyholders,” CEO & MD R Doraiswamy told businessline.
Responding to a query whether the government expected LIC to play any specific role in stabilising the equity markets in the face of Trump’s steep tariffs inducing volatility, he said, “I cannot directly say that government is asking us to do something or the other.
“We ourselves are looking at the situation and based on the emerging economic situation, we buy, ensuring that we get the returns from the investment that we made. We look at the opportunities available and based on the opportunities, we act.”
In the first quarter of FY26 the state-owned life insurer raised its equity exposure significantly to over ₹25,000 crore while its equity portfolio rose 10 per cent sequentially to ₹16.84 lakh crore at the end of June, according to a Prabhudas Lilladher report, based on the stock exchange filings by the corporation.
Doraiswamy said that the Corporation’s investment philosophy has been to buy at reasonable rates and hold for a long period of time “so that we manage our assets and liabilities as close to each other as possible, and we are in a position to meet customer expectations.”
Bullish on financial sector
Recently, LIC was one of the biggest subscribers to State Bank of India’s ₹25,000 crore QIP issuance, in which it invested ₹5000 crore, raising its stake in the bank to 9.5 per cent.
Doraiswamy said the financial sector was an important component of economic growth. “ We are a financial institution, and we are sure that the financial sector needs to grow. India is working towards Viksit Bharat by 2047. If that has to happen, the industry has to grow. If the industry in the country has to grow, there has to be financing support for industries.”
“There is a definite role to be played by banks and other financial institutions. If you go back and see, we have been a promoter of many developmental financial institutions in the past,” he added.
LIC has a major stake in IDBI Bank, in which both the central government and the corporation are planning to divest stake.
Doraiswamy pointed out that LIC is betting on other sectors too. Stock exchange filings show that it made some new investments in companies such as Mazagon Dock, Siemens, IREDA and Firstsource Solutions.
Published on August 12, 2025
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