The Life Insurance Corporation of India will invest Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) in the equity market this financial year. It has already invested close to Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) this year.

The insurance behemoth has also earmarked Rs 35,000 crore (Rs 350 billion) for corporate lending.

"We hope to generate a total investible surplus of Rs 1,00,000 crore (Rs 1,000 billion) in 2004-05 against Rs 80,000 crore (Rs 800 billion) in 2003-04. Half of this will be invested in government securities, and 15 per cent in infrastructure and social sectors and state loans as mandated by the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority regulations," explained R N Bharadwaj, managing director, LIC.

"We would like to provide around 35 per cent of the investible surplus, or Rs 35,000 crore, to the corporate sector through debt, debentures and other instruments," he added.

"LIC is also looking at the possibility of investing in the Bombay Stock Exchange's B group shares. We have found that there are good opportunities in them," he said.

On the sectors LIC was banking on in the equity segment, he said, "Cement, steel, pharma, power, agro-based industries offer tremendous opportunity and these would provide good returns in the long term."

LIC was also looking at opportunities in the power sector. It has already invested around Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) in NTPC and Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) in Rural Electrification Corporation, apart from Power Trading Corporation.

First premium income: LIC has targeted a first premium income of Rs 11,665 crore (Rs 116.65 billion) in 2004-05, while new policies are expected to be around 3.1 crore (Rs 31 million).

The insurer has achieved a 30 per cent growth in number of policies till May, while it registered a 49 per cent growth for first premium income in the same period.

The insurance major was also planning to launch another equity linked insurance product in the next few weeks, while it will close down a couple of two products.