The Life Insurance Corporation’s investment in tobacco major ITC has once again come under the scanner following the Public Interest Litigation filed by Tata managing trustee R Venkataramanan, a project manager at Tata Trusts and doctors from Tata Memorial Hospital, questioning the decision, reports Economic Times. The PIL names the government, state-run insurers, including LIC, and the insurance regulator, and says that the investment is contradictory to the government’s measures to tackle tobacco-related health problems. Studies show that nearly a million people in India die every year due to health problems arising out of the use of tobacco. In the past, too, health activists have questioned the government’s decision to invest in the tobacco major. As of March 31, 2017, the government indirectly owns close to 30 percent in the tobacco major. The stakes are held through the Special Undertaking of the Unit Trust of India (around 9 percent), LIC (around 16...
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