As the #LIC IPO opens today, a small snippet from its history...one of independent India’s first scams involved LIC, and a large part of the credit of bringing it to light lay with Nehru’s son-in-law. Feroze Gandhi; whose proposal of marriage Indira Gandhi had accepted as she wrote, ‘on the steps of the (Basilica) of Sacré-Coeur’ at the end of summer while ‘Paris bathed in soft sunshine,’ is said to have had an unpleasant relationship with his father-in-law Jawaharlal Nehru.

A 2010 news report said that a history student had found the world's oldest share certificate in a forgotten archive. It was a Dutch East India Company share from 1606, issued roughly around the time Akbar's reign had ended in India. Sebi recently wrote to market record-keepers to find the value of similarly forgotten shares and other assets. It brought to light unclaimed stocks, dividends and other assets. They were worth nearly Rs 20,000 crore. But that may only be the tip of the iceberg.