The statement was in response to a report in The Washington Post alleging 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.
Mumbai:State owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) . with Rs57 trillion assets, on Saturday said its investments in Adani group companies have been made independently and in accordance with its board-approved policies, following detailed due diligence.
“Department of Financial Services (in the Union Finance Ministry) or any other body does not have any role in such (investment) decisions,” LIC said in a statement posted on X.
India’s largest insurer has, over the years, made investment decisions across companies based on fundamentals and detailed due diligence. Its investment value in India’s top 500 companies has grown 10-fold since 2014 — from Rs 1.56 trillion to Rs 15.6 trillion — reflecting strong fund management.
“The investment decisions are taken by LIC independently as per Board-approved policies after detailed due diligence,” LIC said.
“LIC has ensured the highest standards of due diligence and all its investment decisions have been undertaken in compliance with extant policies, provisions in the Acts and regulatory guidelines, in the best interest of all its stakeholders.”
“The investment decisions are taken by LIC independently as per Board-approved policies after detailed due diligence,” LIC said.
The statement was in response to a report in The Washington Post alleging 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 in Adani Ports & SEZ (APSEZ), which holds the highest ‘AAA’ credit rating in India.
LIC said the Department of Financial Services or any other body does not have any role in its investment decisions, and the report carries statements “with the intentions to prejudice the well-settled decision-making process of LIC and also to tarnish the reputation and image of LIC and the strong financial sector foundations in India.”
Former LIC Chairperson Siddhartha Mohanty on Saturday asserted that the government “never interferes directly or indirectly in any investment decision of LIC” and a “misleading narrative” is sought to be created by a news report in a foreign publication.
In a post on X, Mohanty referred to allegations levelled in a report by the Washington Post and called upon the publication to remove “the said unverified content from all digital and print platforms”.
“Some misleading narrative is created by Washington Post against LIC’s investment in Adani Group under instructions of the Govt. From my experience as ex-Chairman and CEO&MD I affirm that Govt never interferes directly or indirectly in any lnvestment decision of LIC. Therefore I call upon Washington Post to withdraw and remove the said unverified content from all digital and print platforms and desist from publishing any further unverified allegations against LIC,” he said.
The insurer is not a small, single-purpose fund but India’s largest institutional investor with over Rs 41 trillion (over $500 billion) in assets. It invests across 351 publicly listed stocks (as of early 2025) spanning virtually every major business group and sector.
LIC also holds substantial government bonds and corporate debt. Its portfolio is highly diversified, spreading risk.
LIC’s exposure to the Adani group is less than 2 per cent of the conglomerate’s total debt, helmed by India’s second-richest man, Gautam Adani.
Global investors like US’ largest funds BlackRock, Apollo, Japan’s largest banks Mizuho, MUFG, and Germany’s second largest bank DZ Bank have also invested in Adani debt in recent months, reflecting global confidence in the group.
Sources said Adani’s total debt of Rs 2.6 trillion is backed by Rs 90,000 crore in annual operating profit and Rs 60,000 crore in cash. This means Adani could knock off its entire debt in under three years if it paused new infrastructure investments.
the equity side, Adani is not LIC’s largest holding Reliance Industries Ltd., ITC, and the Tata Group are.
LIC owns 4 per cent (Rs 60,000 crore) of Adani stocks versus 6.94 per cent (Rs 1.33 trillion) in Reliance, 15.86 per cent (Rs 82,800 crore) in ITC Ltd, 4.89 per cent (Rs 64,725 crore) in HDFC Bank, and 9.59 per cent (Rs 79,361 crore) in SBI. LIC holds 5.02 per cent of TCS worth Rs 5.7 trillion.
LIC’s 30 cr policyholders’ savings systematically misused to benefit the Adani Group :Congress
The Congress on Saturday alleged that the savings of LIC’s 30 crore policyholders were systematically misused to benefit the Adani Group and demanded that Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee investigate how LIC was forced to make investments in the conglomerate.
There was no immediate response from the Adani Group or the government on the Congress’ allegations.
Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said disturbing revelations have just emerged in the media about how the “Modani joint venture systematically misused the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and the savings of its 30 crore policyholders”.
“Internal documents reveal that Indian officials drafted and pushed through a proposal to invest about Rs 33,000 crores of LIC funds in various Adani Group companies in May 2025,” he said.
The reported goals were to “signal confidence in the Adani Group” and to “encourage participation from other investors”, he said in a statement.
“The question arises: under whose pressure did the officials of the Ministry of Finance and NITI Aayog decide that their job was to bail out a private company facing funding difficulties due to serious allegations of criminality? Is this not a textbook case of ‘mobile phone banking’?” Ramesh said.
The Congress leader said the costs of “throwing public money at crony firms” became clear when LIC suffered “a staggering Rs 7,850 crore loss” in just four hours of trading on September 21, 2024, following the indictment of Gautam Adani and seven of his associates in the United States.
“Adani has been accused of orchestrating a ₹2,000 crore bribery scheme to secure high-priced solar power contracts in India. The Modi government has refused, for nearly a year, to serve a US SEC summons to the prime minister’s most favoured business conglomerate,” Ramesh said.
The Congress has been persistent in its attack on the government since the Adani Group stocks took a beating on the bourses in the wake of US-based short-selling firm, Hindenburg Research, making a litany of allegations.
The Adani Group has dismissed all charges made by the Congress and others as lies, saying it complies with all laws and disclosure requirements.
Ramesh further claimed, “The Modani MegaScam is very wide-ranging. For instance, it encompasses: The misuse of agencies such as the ED, CBI, and Income Tax Department to force other private companies to sell their assets to the Adani Group.”
He also alleged that there was “rigged privatisation” of critical infrastructure assets such as airports and ports for the benefit of the Adani Group alone.
Ramesh pointed to alleged misuse of diplomatic resources to funnel contracts to the Adani Group in various countries, especially in India’s neighbourhood.
He said the scam also encompasses the import of “over-invoiced coal by close Adani associates Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli and Chang Chung-Ling” using a money-laundering network of shell companies, which contributed to sharp increases in the prices of electricity drawn from Adani power stations in Gujarat.
Ramesh also pointed to pre-election electricity supply agreements at abnormally high prices in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra and the recent alleged allocation of land at Rs 1 per acre for a power plant in poll-bound Bihar.
“The entirety of this Modani MegaScam can only be investigated by a Joint Parliamentary Committee of Parliament that the INC has been demanding for almost three years – ever since we published our 100-question series Hum Adani Ke Hain Kaun (HAHK).
“As a first step, now at least Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) should fully investigate how LIC was literally forced to make investments in the Adani Group,” Ramesh said.
That will be well within its powers, he added.