The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has decided to hear the Essar Steel insolvency case dispute on a daily basis for an early resolution, The Hindu Business Line reported. ArcelorMittal, the winning bidder, has been fighting to takeover the steel company for over one-and-half year but there is no sign of a resolution yet. Arguing on behalf of Essar Steel’s financial creditor Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) on Monday, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said ArcelorMittal’s bid is only ₹39,500 crore rather than ₹42,000 crore as claimed by the company in the Supreme Court.

Small borrowers with annual income up to ₹60,000 are likely to get automatic relief for any unsecured loans they are unable to repay, according to a new scheme for personal insolvency resolution that the government has prepared, Mint reported. The new scheme that will replace colonial era laws dealing with personal bankruptcy will also give breathing space to those who can repay loans. It will also protect some of their assets from dues recovery to help in their subsistence.

Lenders of debt-ridden dairy firm Kwality on Monday decided to carry out voting on extending the May 15 deadline for submitting the resolution plan by interested bidders, including Haldiram and Kotak group firm, sources said, Mint reported. The lenders would also vote on seeking extension of insolvency proceedings by 90 days, they said. As many as five companies -- Haldiram, Kotak fund, LVP Foods, Aion and TPG Capital -- have expressed interest to bid for acquiring Kwality.

The High Court of England and Wales has recognized Singapore’s new moratorium law for companies unable to pay their creditors, Vantage Asia reported. The ruling is positive for debt workouts across different jurisdictions and a boost to the city-state’s ambition to become Asia’s debt restructuring hub.

South Korea is making a last-ditch attempt to win an exemption from US tariffs on cars and auto parts, as the country struggles to shield its export-driven economy from rising US protectionism and the fallout from Donald Trump’s trade war with China, the Financial Times reported. Yoo Myung-hee, South Korea’s trade minister, will visit Washington this week to press Seoul’s case with White House officials, members of Congress and US trade representatives, before the US president pushes through a new tariff against one of its key allies in Asia.

Pakistan and IMF negotiators have reached an agreement on a $6bn loan for the country, the finance ministry said last night. Speaking on state-run Pakistan Television, Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, head of the finance ministry, said: “We have reached an agreement with the IMF staff for $6bn for the next three years. There will be adjustments involved but we will try to make certain that the extent of pain on low-income people is minimal.” The agreement is yet to be formally confirmed by the IMF’s management and its executive board, the Financial Times reported.

The last stronghold in embattled tycoon Anil Ambani’s phone carrier-to-power empire is also developing fault lines. Reliance Capital Ltd., his financial services business that almost doubled its profit in five years, had largely remained insulated from the distress plaguing the wider conglomerate, Bloomberg News reported. Now, the company that controls India’s fifth-biggest mutual fund, is racing to close a planned $2 billion of asset sales to bolster its finances after cash dwindled to 110 million rupees ($1.6 million) as of March, according to CARE Ratings.

Troubles among India’s non-bank financiers will persist for at least a year even if the danger of a full-blown financial crisis has passed, according to the head of the nation’s most valuable bank, Bloomberg News reported. Tighter regulatory oversight and asset sales have staved off the worst of the problems afflicting India’s non-bank financial firms following last year’s defaults by Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd., according to HDFC Bank Ltd.’s Managing Director Aditya Puri.

GMR Infrastructure Limited (GIL) announced execution of resolution plan for its stressed GMR Rajahmundry Energy Limited (GREL) – 768 MW gas-fired power plant in Andhra Pradesh, Business Standard reported. The company informed the exchanges on Friday morning that it has paid a portion of the sustainable debt of the project. The resolution plan which has been approved by the lenders of the project consisted of reduction of total debt of Rs 2353 crore to sustainable debt of Rs 1412 crore.

An insolvency professional (IP) may not find it easy to wriggle out of an existing transaction because of the difficult situations faced during the corporate insolvency resolution or liquidation process. This is because the insolvency regulator, IBBI, has advised the Insolvency Professional Agencies (IPAs) — who register the IPs with them — not to ordinarily accept ‘temporary surrender’ of professional membership of an IP while doing the CIRP or individual insolvency resolution and individual bankruptcy, The Hindu Business Line reported.