LIC pushes for offshore investing

India's financial regulators may relax restrictions on local institutions' investing assets offshore within the next 12 months, says RN Bhardwaj, managing director at Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), which manages 340,000 crore (Rs3.4 trillion, $75 billion). Because of LIC's huge size, it has asked government officials to allow it to invest some of its assets overseas. Bhardwaj is confident the government will agree, noting that the Reserve Bank of India (the central ban…