New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said her ministry does not issue advisory or directions to Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) regarding its investment decisions, and emphasised that the investments that the state-owned insurer made in Adani Group were as per established SOPs.
India’s largest insurer has, over the years, made investment decisions across companies based on fundamentals and detailed due diligence. Following due diligence as per established standard operating procedures (SOPs), it has bought shares across half a dozen listed companies of Adani Group, whose book value stands at Rs 38,658.85 crore and invested another Rs 9,625.77 crore in debt instruments of the conglomerate.
“The Ministry of Finance does not issue any advisory/direction to LIC in connection with matters related to investment of LIC fund,” she said in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha. The investment decisions of the state-owned insurer, she said, are taken by “LIC alone following strict due diligence, risk assessment and fiduciary compliance”.
Such decisions are governed by the provisions of the Insurance Act, 1938, as well as regulations issued by Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) (wherever applicable) from time to time, she said.
In October, a report in The Washington Post alleged that finance ministry officials orchestrated a plan to steer LIC into investing in the Adani group earlier this year, when the ports-to-energy conglomerate was facing a debt pile and scrutiny in the US. The report highlighted LIC’s May 2025 investment of $570 million (around Rs 5,000 crore) in Adani Ports & SEZ (APSEZ).
Sitharaman said, “LIC has invested Rs 5,000 crore in secured non-convertible debentures (NCD) issued by Adani Ports Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) in May 2025, after doing due diligence following established Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) as per their Board-approved policies.”
She went on to state that LIC has invested in the top 500 companies listed on NSE and BSE, and a major portion of its investment currently is in the larger companies out of these.
“Book value of LIC’s investment in Nifty 50 companies, as on September 30, 2025, is Rs 4,30,776.97 crore which is 45.85 per cent of its total equity investment,” she said.
Detailing checks-and-balances that have been put in place, she said the investment functions of LIC are verified by concurrent auditors, statutory auditors, system auditors, internal financial control (IFC) auditors and internal vigilance team.
“Periodical inspections are also done by the sector Regulator IRDAI in this regard,” she said. “There is no direct oversight by the Government on investments made by LIC.”
Detailing LIC’s top investments, she said among the private firms, the insurer had the highest equity investment of Rs 40,901.38 crore in Reliance Industries Ltd, followed by Rs 38,846.33 crore in Infosys, Rs 31,926.89 crore in Tata Consultancy Services, Rs 31,664.69 crore in HDFC Bank and
Rs 30,133.49 crore in Hindustan Unilever.