The Relative Size and Distribution of the Shareholdings of the Life Insurance Corporation of India 1957-63

The state-owned Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) is known to be the largest shareholder in many companies in the private sector of Indian industry. A great deal of curiosity has been shown about the relative size Of ite shareholding, particularly equity holdings. Only some very fragmentary information is, however, available about their relative size and no information whatsoever is available about their distribution among companies of different size and category. This paper attempts to fill these gaps in the available data. The results will be found to be of wide interest from the viewpoints of corporate control, corporate finance and the institutional development of the share market in India.