Life Insurance Corporation of India, a 65-year-old company run by the government of India, which has also been the market leader in its space ever since, is currently in the process of readying itself for an initial public offering. Various estimates of its valuation are doing rounds, and some of them have put the expected size of the IPO close to Rs 1 trillion--higher than any IPO in the history of India’s financial market history.

       However, recent months have been tough for LIC. Though it is the market leader, its share is declining, whichever way we look at it. Secondly, ...