Irda today tweaked norms for insurance companies to invest their funds in different market instruments like government securities and corporate debt to channelise long term savings in infrastructure sector. Life insurance companies can now be invested in central government securities which should not be less than 25 per cent of the total corpus, Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (Irda) said in a notification. However, the total investment in central government securities, state government securities and other approved securities cannot be less than 50 per cent taken together. At the same time, it has allowed life insurers to invest in housing and infrastructure bonds, with ratings of not less than AA by credit rating agencies. The total investment in the category will not be less than 15 per cent.

Source - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com