How a Mega-IPO Could Help Plug India’s Budget Deficit

The scale is staggering. State-owned Life Insurance Corp. of India, with its distinctive blue and yellow logo, is ubiquitous across the subcontinent, controlling three-quarters of the Indian market with almost 300 million policies and more than 1 million agents, 100,000 employees, 2,000 branches and 1,400 satellite offices, plus 1,900 outlets of its affiliate, IDBI Bank Ltd. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration plans to sell a stake in LIC, in what promises to be — if it’s pulled off –